In veiled attack, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav calls CM Yogi ‘fake saint’; hints at declaring cow ‘Mother of State’

“The era of fake saints will end,” said Samajwadi Party (SP) national president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav Thursday in a thinly veiled allusion to Yogi Adityanath.

Yadav’s remarks came in the wake of his meeting with embattled Shankaracharya Avimukteshwarananda, who is currently embroiled in a bitter face off with CM Adityanath.

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For the entire meeting that lasted close to an hour, Akhilesh Yadav was seen sitting on the floor. “I have met Shankaracharya and with his blessings, the era of fake saints will end. Now, those who mislead people in the name of religion will also be exposed. Everyone’s truth will be revealed.”

“Akhilesh Yadav came for darshan,” said Avimukteshwarananda, adding, “We discussed several things. We also talked about the times of Mulayam Singh Yadav and told him about my meeting with the latter.”

“So far, no government representative has come to us on our demand to declare Cow as Mother of the state. They say that the BJP is a party of Hindus. When we talk about Hindus, only Akhilesh comes,” Avimukteshwarananda said.

The SP chief was accompanied by the party chief spokesperson Rajendra Choudhury and former MP Annu Tandon. In a rather change of tack, Yadav attacked the BJP over Avimukteshwarananda’s demand to declare the cow as the Mother of the State.

“BJP opposes every good thing. When our government was in power, we built a dairy to benefit the poor and take care of cows, but the BJP people opposed it. The first cow milk plant was established during the SP government, but the BJP government shut it down.”

“We have been working for the welfare of cows in the past and will continue to do so in the future,” said Yadav.

Yadav, responding to a question about the state’s deputy CMs, claimed that both were reprimanded and thrown out of a BJP meeting. He said they might not win wherever they contest from.

Referring to the LPG crisis owing to the Iran war, Yadav said, “Due to the Indian government’s wrong decisions, people are facing an LPG crisis. People are forced to use stoves and furnaces in their homes. The situation is such that there is a fight over LPG in the chief minister’s own district. People are fighting for gas.”