Following the circulation of alleged objectionable AI-generated posts targeting Aditi Yadav, the daughter of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, SP legislators accused the BJP of failing to curb the deterioration of political discourse.
The controversy intensified after SP MLA Mohammad Hasan Roomi announced a cash reward of Rs 1.11 lakh for the first police personnel who "apprehends the accused, ties him up, parades him publicly, and condemn him for the act".
Speaking to PTI, Roomi, who represents the Cantt Assembly constituency in Kanpur, said political rivalry had crossed all limits, with families of political leaders now being dragged into public attacks.
"The ball is now in the BJP's court. Whoever created and circulated these AI-generated posts should face strict action and public condemnation for this shameful act," he said.
Roomi also called for stricter cybercrime laws, alleging that offenders often evade immediate arrest in cases carrying punishment of less than seven years.
"There is a need to make cybercrime laws tougher and more effective so that such offences can be curbed," he said, describing the alleged misuse of artificial intelligence to morph photographs and spread defamatory content as "highly condemnable".
SP MLA Amitabh Bajpai, representing the Arya Nagar constituency, backed the complaint filed by Praveen Yadav, national secretary of the SP Adhivakta Sabha, and said political differences should never extend to family members.
"Political rivalry is part of democracy, but dragging families and children into such campaigns is unfortunate and against democratic values," Bajpai said.
Meanwhile, condemning the alleged derogatory remarks, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said comments made to insult the SP chief’s daughter would not be tolerated at any cost.
Addressing an event in Azamgarh on Saturday, the chief minister described the remarks as a disgrace and called for immediate action in the matter. He said he had directed the police to register an FIR, while also advising Akhilesh Yadav to "rein in" his party workers before any further objectionable comments were made, or hand over such elements to him.
“I was seeing recently that some people were making comments on social media against the daughter of Akhilesh Yadav ji,” he remarked at the gathering. “As soon as it came to my notice, I immediately told the police to register an FIR against it.”
The chief minister urged dignity in public discourse, especially towards someone's daughter.
"A daughter is a daughter. We have grown up with the values that the daughter in a village is everyone's daughter and the sister in a village is everyone's sister. We have never made any distinction," he added.
CM Yogi then made remarks directed at Akhilesh Yadav’s response to the incident.
"Akhilesh ji, you advise others, but you should also advise your followers and workers to keep their language restrained. You need to teach your people as well. It would be better if you make them understand, and if they still do not understand, hand them over to us—we will make them understand properly," he said.
The controversy began with a June 9 social media post from an account allegedly operated by Bharat Kumar Patel. The post reportedly made "false, forged and misleading" claims and objectionable remarks against Yadav’s daughter Aditi. It also linked her to theft and criminal activities and shared a morphed photograph intended to damage her public image.
Patel, along with two others accused of posting abusive comments in response to the original post — Nageshwar Singh Baghel and Vinod Kumar Yadav — was booked after a named FIR was registered under Sections 79 and 336 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with provisions of the Information Technology Act.
