BJP, SP cross swords over delay in sweaters for UP’S schoolkids

KANPUR: Tit-for-tat sweater politics is playing out between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the BJP in Uttar Pradesh this winter over the delay in distribution of pullovers to 1.54 crore school-going children in the state.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav took the lead in criticising the government on the issue. In a tweet last year, he said: “Sarkar bar bar sweater ke tender cancel kar rahi hai aur school ke bachche sarkar ki taraf se diye janewali sweater ka intezar. Kahin aisa na ho ki idhar bachche jhuthi ummidon ki aag tapte reh jaaen aur udhar tender ki prakriya puri hote hote May-june aa jaye. (The govern- ment is cancelling the tender for sweaters and schoolchildren are waiting for them. It should not happen that the children suffer in false hope and the tender process is completed in May-june (peak of summer season).”

In response, deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya said in Kaushambi on Wednesday, “We have sent sweaters to Akhilesh Yadav’s children. The poor children of our state will be shortly given pullovers as promised.”

Not to be outdone, several SP leaders then sent sweaters to Maurya’s father after learning of his illness. “The deputy CM is not able to safeguard his father from the biting cold. Think of the children. How will they fight the cold with a false promise?” Amir Khan Manni, district president of the SP youth wing, said.

Amitabh Bajpai, SP MLA from Arya Nagar in Kanpur, is said to be behind t he move. “He (Maurya) should work on fulfilling promises rather than dragging family members (of political rivals) into a political discourse,” Bajpai told HT.

The BJP government has been facing flak for failing to give sweaters during the peak of winters. Seeking to counter the Opposition’s barbs, the state’s basic education minister, Anupama Jaiswal, announced she would not wear sweaters till all students in government-run schools received theirs.

She added that a glitch was responsible for the delay.