As the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections reach the halfway mark, the war of words among our netas has decidedly turned ugly. While personal attacks from small-time leaders in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are par for the course, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “graveyard” remarks, we heard top party leadership in UP go on the offense – and offensive, yesterday.

Hitting back at PM Modi, Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav made a “donkey jibe”, referring to a Gujarat Tourism’s advertisement on the Wild Ass Sanctuary in Little Runn of Kutch. In a rally on Monday, Yadav said, “I request the century’s superstar (Amitabh Bachchan) to stop advertising for donkeys of Gujarat.”

BSP chief Mayawati was on PM Modi’s hitlist on Monday. Addressing a rally in Bundelkhand’s Orai constituency, Modi said, “The ‘Bahujan’ of BSP is now limited to Behenji only. BSP is now Behenji Sampatti Party.”

Mayawati responded in equal measure: “What is the full name of Prime Minister? Shri Narendra Damodar Das Modi – Narendra stands for Negative, Damodardas stands for Dalit and Modi stands for Man.” Just so that the acronym is not lost on the common man, she repeated, “He is Negative Dalit Man. This means he is an anti-dalit man.”

Inspired by the stellar creativity on display, we’d like to introduce our own acronym in the context of the current elections in the state. UP = Unpleasant Politics.

Meanwhile, Bundelkhand is set to go to polls on February 23. Drought-struck Bundelkhand has traditionally voted for BSP, but that might change in the current Assembly elections.