Akhilesh turns the tables on Amit Shah with his own version of acronym JAM

The tit-for-tat war has flagged off in earnest in Uttar Pradesh, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, is showing he may be a worthy opponent of the BJP. Especially, when it comes to trading insults.

The SP chief on Sunday (November 14) countered Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s jibe against his party, with a salvo of his own claiming the BJP stands for JAM – Jhooth (lies), Ahankaar (aggrogance) and Mahangaai (inflation). He used the same acronym JAM, which Shah had used to describe the SP at a meeting in Azamgarh. Shah had said the SP stands for “Jinnah, Azam Khan and Mukhtar (Ansari)” or ‘JAM’.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s well-known acronym JAM is often used to push his vision that each and everyone in the country should have a ‘Jan Dhan bank account, Aadhaar and Mobile phone’. Now, this acronym is being delployed in a political slugfest between the BJP and the SP ahead of the UP elections.

Yadav, however, addressing a press conference in Kushinagar pulled out his own version for what JAM stands for. “For BJP, ‘J’ stands for ‘Jhooth’ (lie), ‘A’ stands for ‘Ahankaar(arrogance), and ‘M’ stands for ‘Mahangaai’ (inflation),” he told the media. Further, Akhilesh launched an attack on the BJP for the rising prices of petrol and diesel across the country.

“If the BJP stays in power, it (fuel price) will touch ₹150. They are not increasing the price as elections is round the corner,” he said, alleging that they were pandering to the poor to win the elections in UP.  Yadav also said that BJP was only promising to give food grains to the poor till the elections until Holi, but if his party comes to power, food will be available around the year.

Also read:Farmers not going to get justice as long as BJP is in power: Akhilesh Yadav

A day earlier, Shah addressing a rally in Azamgarh, which is a SAP stronghold, praised Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for ridding the Purvanchal region of “mosquitoes and mafia”. PM Modi strives to give a corrruptionf free government, he pointed out. But the SP was taking on people like Mukhtar Ansari, a don-turned-politician into their party.

Shah then asked the crowd if they want BJP’s JAM or SP’s JAM. SP can never work for the welfare of Uttar Pradesh, he said, adding that they indulge in dividing people on the basis of caste, causing riots, appeasement, and vote-bank politics.

He raked up the SP chief’s controversial statement naming Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, as one of India’s freedom fighters. And he asked people from the minority community present at his rally if anyone here saw greatness in Jinnah?

In an address in Hardoi on October 31, Akhilesh had stirred up a storm when he said that Sardar Patel, Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and [Muhammad Ali] Jinnah became barristers after attending the same institution. “They got freedom for India. They did not back down from any struggles,” he had said.