MSY takes first dose, BJP hails move
Samajwadi Party (SP) founder and chief patron Mulayam Singh Yadav, 81, on Monday took the first dose of Covid vaccine at a private hospital in Gurgaon.
“Today, Samajwadi Party founder and former defence minister got himself vaccinated,” the Samajwadi Party tweeted in Hindi from its official handle with a photograph of the leader getting the jab.
Earlier on May 19, his younger daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav had taken the vaccine at Lok Bandhu hospital in Lucknow.
In January, SP president Akhilesh Yadav had kicked up a controversy when at a press conference in Lucknow he termed the Covid vaccines as “vaccine of the BJP” and had declared that he would not take it. It drew a sharp retort from BJP leaders who accused him of “insulting the doctors and scientists who indigenously developed the vaccine” and called Akhilesh’s statement “irresponsible”.
Later, Akhilesh reiterated that it was the “BJP vaccine” but clarified that he never insulted the scientists and researchers who developed the vaccines but criticised the BJP that was politicising the vaccine.
Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya in a tweet in Hindi said: “Samajwadi Party chief patron and former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav ji, thank you for taking the jab of swadeshi (indigenous) vaccine. Your taking the vaccine is a testimony that the SP national president Akhilesh Yadav had spread rumour about the vaccine. Akhilesh ji should apologise for it.”
BJP UP unit president Swatandra Dev Singh in a tweet in Hindi said: “A good message...I hope that Samawjadi Party workers and the party president too would take inspiration from this.” Both Maurya and Singh posted the picture of Mulayam Singh Yadav taking the jab along with their tweets.