Akhilesh Yadav Slams Keshav Maurya; Deputy CM Responds

Samajwadi Party (SP) president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday took a jab at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the alleged divide in the party’s Uttar Pradesh branch.

Yadav told reporters in Lucknow that he has heard that UP’s deputy chief minister, Keshav Prasad Maurya, is a “pawn”. Maurya, on the other hand, retaliated against Yadav for his remarks, labeling him a “Congress’ pawn”.

Yadav spoke with media after presenting a ‘Samvidhan-Manstambh’ at the SP headquarters in Lucknow. He also criticized the Yogi Adityanath administration on the subject of corruption in the state.

“The government used to claim that there is a zero-tolerance policy, especially on corruption and law and order. But now their leaders themselves are saying we have not seen such corruption in our political life,” Yadav said.

“Corruption is being exposed because some people have become pawns,” Yadav added, implying a schism within the BJP but not naming anyone.

“I heard that ‘Maurya ji mohre hain’, a password to Delhi’s Wi-Fi,” he added, hinting at Maurya’s closeness with the central BJP leadership.

“Samajwadi Party leader Shree Akhilesh Yadav ji, who has become a pawn of the Congress, should focus on saving the SP from extinction rather than harbouring misconceptions about the BJP, targeting the backward sections and insulting them,” Maurya wrote on X.