The campaigning for seven phases of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections have so far been quite eventful, and coloured by jibes coming from various sides. International Business Times, India, takes a look at some of the more colourful and impactful of these jibes thrown around in the campaigning phase in UP:
1. SCAM: Prime Minister Narendra Modi unleashed this one at an election rally in Meerut. And given what it stood for, all parties involved were stung, as was evident from their reaction to it. "S: Samajwadi, C: Congress, A: Akhilesh, M: Mayawati," he had explained, adding: "Decide whether you want scam or the BJP and UP's development." Mayawati tried to claim this was a casteist jab, but to little avail.
2. KASAB: BJP national president Amit Shah aimed this one at the three political rivals of his party in UP. Using Hindi, he said the "Ka" stands for the Congress, the "Sa" for the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the B for the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The reference — Ajmal Kasab was the lone terrorist caught alive by India after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks — was not lost on anyone.
3. Gadha: SP chief and current UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav let this one lose while taking on PM Modi and an advertisement promoting certain asinine species from his home state of Gujarat. Modi hit back, saying the Congress, with which the SP had allied itself, had released a stamp on these very donkeys when it had been in power in the Centre.
4. Uttam Pradesh: While technically not a jibe or a barb, this is still a prod at the ruling SP when Modi said in Ghaziabad: "Uttar Pradesh can become India's 'Uttam Pradesh' if it chooses the right government." Development has been a big issue in the UP elections this time, and this one fit right in.
5. Rapists: Another big issue on which the UP elections are being fought is the law and order situation in the state. Both Modi and Shah have multiple times accused the SP of harbouring people accused of rape, murder and other heinous crimes. But possibly the strongest barb in this regard came from former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti, who said rapists under her regime were tortured until they could not take it any more and begged for mercy.
