Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of insulting Lord Krishna through his remarks about cowherds, after the chief minister took a swipe at him over his earlier comments about people from Uttarakhand. Yadav also claimed that the BJP would be defeated in the 2027 Assembly elections.
The latest exchange follows a controversy triggered by Yadav's October 24 remarks about alleged infiltrators in Uttar Pradesh. While questioning the BJP's claims about infiltration, Yadav had said that people from Uttarakhand were among the biggest infiltrators in the state.
The BJP criticised the remark as an insult to Uttarakhand and its people. The SP later clarified that Yadav was referring to an individual not the people of the hill state, an apparent reference to Adityanath, who was born in present-day Uttarakhand, and not the people of the state.
Responding to the remarks at the Uttarakhand Mahotsav in Lucknow on Wednesday, Adityanath, without naming Yadav, said that but for an "Uttarakhand ki beti", he would have been grazing buffaloes in Saifai. The reference was to Yadav's wife, Dimple Yadav, who is from Uttarakhand. Adityanath also accused those criticising people from the hill state of embracing Bangladeshi and Pakistani infiltrators.
In a post on X on Thursday, Yadav shared a video clip of Adityanath's remarks and accused him of insulting Lord Krishna through his reference to cowherds.
"By using abusive language against 'Gopalaks' (cowherds), the Uttar Pradesh chief minister has, by implication, insulted Gopal, or Lord Krishna. This is unforgivable," Yadav said.
"First, he was involved, along with a big gang, in the theft of offerings, donations and contributions made to the Ram temple in Ayodhya, and gave them a clean chit out of fear that the truth might come out. Now he is attacking Lord Krishna. He is using such objectionable language because he wants to establish his own power, separate from Sanatan Dharma," Yadav alleged.
The former chief minister further accused Adityanath of having the Pal community "beaten with batons" in Varanasi and showing "utter disrespect" to a statue of Rajmata Devi Ahilyabai Holkar in the city after the Shivalinga had been removed from it. Holkar, he said, was a great devotee of Lord Shiva and belonged to the Holkar community of the shepherd (Gadariya) caste.
"He is neither a true devotee of Lord Shiva, nor of Lord Ram, nor of Lord Krishna, nor of Devi Ahilyabai," Yadav said in his post, without directly naming Adityanath.
Taking an apparent swipe at preacher Dhirendra Shastri, who is scheduled to hold a religious discourse in Kunda in Pratapgarh next week, Yadav referred to him as "Dushmukhi". He alleged that Shastri and Adityanath shared similarities in their attire, language and remarks about Lord Ram and Lord Krishna. The SP chief also criticised the proposed religious event, claiming that the BJP was inviting such figures because Adityanath had become "politically weak".
Slamming the chief minister over his language, Yadav said, "We forgive you because you are not in control of yourself. From someone who cannot even control his own willpower and becomes unsettled every now and then throughout the day, expecting control or balance over his words is pointless." "The more your frustration and apprehension over defeat grow, the lower your language will sink," he added.
Yadav claimed that Adityanath had become "afraid of the defeats in 2024 and 2026" and "that is why your speech has gone awry. You will suffer a permanent defeat in 2027." "If you were winning, you would be talking about yourself and your achievements, not about us.
"The more offensively you speak, the worse your defeat will be, because the 2027 election has now become a contest between five per cent arrogant, supremacist and dominant people and 95 per cent PDA," he said. The exchange comes ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, with the BJP and the SP trading accusations over identity, religion and political leadership.
(With inputs from PTI)
