BJP’s UP chief compares Rahul Gandhi to a donkey

You know it’s election time when the BJP starts lowering political discourse.

In Uttar Pradesh, where political parties are readying for by-polls in Phulpur and Gorakhpur, the party’s state chief, Mahendra Nath Pandey, on Wednesday stopped short of calling Congress president Rahul Gandhi a donkey.

“Sonia kitna bhi kharara karle… samajh rahe hain na aap… woh (Rahul Gandhi) kabhi ghoda nahin bana sakta (No matter what effort Sonia puts… you are getting what I am saying, no?… he (Rahul Gandhi) can’t be turned into a horse),” he told a gathering of student leaders at BJP’s media centre in Allahabad.

Everybody at the meeting did get what he was saying, though he proceeded to “request the media” not to “give importance to my comment” and that “this is our internal party meeting”, when questioned about his remark by Newslaundry correspondent Amit Bhardwaj.

The word used for the Gandhi scion and its implication was not lost on anyone, since the local phrase is: Gadhe ko kitna bhi kharara kar lo, woh ghoda nahin banega.

In Phulpur and Gorakhpur, the Congress and the SP-BSP alliance are set to give a tough fight to the BJP, which took over the reins of the state last year, headed by saffron-clad Yogi Adityanath.

Prior to the UP Assembly polls in 2017, insults were hurled liberally.

Among the worst was BJP’s former state vice-president Dayashankar Singh calling BSP chief Mayawati a “prostitute”, accusing her of selling party tickets to the highest bidder. He later also likened her to a dog, saying she was “running after money” – a statement he denied.

Singh was expelled from the party after much furore over his remarks but reinstated at the post after the BJP won the UP election.

On Wednesday, the BSP chief was again the target of attacks. “Sampati ki bhookhi Mayawati, woh parivartan layegi? (Hungry for wealth, will Mayawati bring change?),” Pandey asked the students – previous and current members of the ABVP, BJP’s youth wing.

He added: “Bohat se log jo shaadi nahin karte, woh zyaada maya mein rehte hain (Many people who don’t marry lust for wealth)”, further taking a dig at Mayawati by saying “she is in Anand”.

The BSP supremo’s younger brother Anand Kumar’s assets had allegedly skyrocketed while she was the CM of UP. He was inducted into her party as vice-president last year.