Don’t do any ad campaigns for Gujarat’s gadhas: Akhilesh request to Amitabh

TIL Desk/National/UP/ Addressing an election rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav took a cheeky dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan, who has been the brand ambassador of Gujarat tourism for a long period of time.

Without taking names, Mr Yadav referred to an ad in which Mr Bachchan – whose wife Jaya Bachchan is a Samajwadi party lawmaker – gives viewers a glimpse of a “Wild Ass Sanctuary” near Ahmedabad. The 74-year-old veteran has filmed a series of such ads as brand ambassador of Gujarat tourism.

“We will tell the mahanayak, don’t campaign for donkeys. Have you ever heard of campaigning for donkeys? Gujarat’s people are doing campaigns for donkeys…then they accuse me of working only for kabristan (graveyard…),” said the 43-year-old Chief Minister.

The latest comment reflects increasingly pungent discourse in Uttar Pradesh as various parties race to the finish line of the state polls described by many as the semi-final before the 2019 national election.