Kamal Nath: Akhilesh Yadav-Kamal Nath war of words gets shriller | India News

LUCKNOW: The battle of snarky sound bites between two key INDIA constituents – Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) – got shriller on Friday when the former’s CM face in MP, Kamal Nath, responded to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s “tit-for-tat” jibe with a dismissive retort: “Arrey chhoriye Akhilesh-Wakhilesh ko (let’s not get into Akhilesh-Wakhilesh).”
Akhilesh had accused Nath of creating confusion over the alliance for the assembly polls by saying the tie-up was only for Lok Sabha elections.
In Shahjahanpur, Akhilesh maintained that Congress’s conduct in MP had raised questions about its credibility. “If this is how Congress behaves (the way it allegedly treated SP in MP), then who will stand by them,” he said.

Kamal Nath must apologise: CPI
The SP chief said he wasn’t making any suggestion to Congress -only raising the point that the country was in the throes of a “huge challenge” that required everyone’s attention.
“BJP is a big party… BJP is a very organised party. And to face such an opponent, there should be no confusion. If confusion is allowed to prevail, BJP can’t be defeated,” Akhilesh said.
At a presser in Delhi, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate sought to downplay the SP-Congress dispute in MP, claiming that such things happen within a family. She said INDIA was “a family” and cognisant of the SP leadership being unhappy over something. “Congress is in touch with SP at various levels and trying to iron out these differences. Putting a question mark on INDIA on every issue is unnecessary.”

In Hardoi, SP national general secretary Shivpal Yadav said uprooting BJP in UP without joining hands with Akhilesh’s party was impossible. “SP is up against BJP with full preparedness, and I would like all other parties, including Congress, to back this endeavour.”
On PCC chief Ajay Rai branding SP a saffron “B-team”, Shivpal said the Congress brass must caution its state leadership to watch their words lest the barrage of barbs muddy the waters.
“State-level Congress leaders have been talking in different voices on issues related to the opposition tie up for quite some time, and our party leadership has avoided responding to them. In MP, the Congress leadership discussed seat-sharing until 1pm last Saturday and did not include SP when they declared the list the next morning. What is this supposed to mean?” SP’s Sudhir Panwar said.
CPI national secretary Atul Kumar Anjaan said in Lucknow that Kamal Nath must apologise for “undignified” remarks against Akhilesh. “Congress has made a serious political mistake before 2024 by adopting a negative attitude towards its allies in the INDIA. The language used by MP Congress leader Kamal Nath towards Akhilesh Yadav is against political dignity.”