Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Ram Gopal Yadav on Saturday reacted sharply to former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s “Akhilesh Vakhilesh” jibe on SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav and called him a ‘chhutbhaiya neta’ (small leader).

Yadav, when questioned about the remark made by Congress leaders including Kamal Nath on the SP chief, retorted, “I don’t want to say anything about them. Vo chhutbhaiya neta hai. (They are small leaders)”.

Earlier in the day, Akhilesh Yadav hit back at Nath, who is currently helming the Congress in poll-bound MP and said who name has “lotus” – a BJP symbol – they will call him “Vakhilesh” only.

“He said this right, that who is Vakhilesh? Akhilesh is there. If they say these kinds of things then Samajwadi Party can also say, but we don’t want to indulge in this. Our relationship with Kamal Nath is very good. His name is so nice. Whose name has ‘kamal’, they will call Vakhilesh only, not Akhilesh”, the former UP CM was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

The war of words between the leaders of Samajwadi Party and Congress has brought the differences among the Opposition’s INDIA bloc partners in public domain. The latest flashpoint is Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections in which, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav alleges, Congress “betrayed” Samajwadi Party.

#WATCH | Uttar Pradesh: When asked about the statements of Congress leaders including Kamal Nath on Samajwadi Party, Samajwadi MP Ram Gopal Yadav says, “I don’t want to say anything. They are ‘Chhutbhaiya’ leaders…” //t.co/5ICDhov4NW”>pic.twitter.com/5ICDhov4NW

— ANI (@ANI) October 21, 2023

Yadav said that Congress told SP to give six seats where the latter’s candidates had won in 2018 Assembly elections. However, when the Congress announced its candidates, there was no one from the Samajwadi Party.

In response, SP also released its own list of candidates and many of them were fielded against Congress candidates. Yadav said that Congress should have cleared this before and that this confusion will not help INDIA alliance beat BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

In the 2018 assembly election, the Samajwadi Party had contested on 52 seats and won just one seat. It had extended support to the Congress which was short of majority to form the government in the state.

Madhya Pradesh, currently ruled by the BJP, will go to polls on November 17. The counting of vote will take place on December 3.