Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday came to the defence of senior party leader Azam Khan who has been booked for derogatory remarks against Jaya Prada, his BJP rival in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur parliamentary constituency.

Khan has also been asked by the National Commission for Women to explain his comments on Sunday, which were caught on camera, against the actor-turned-politician as the BJP and Congress sought action against him. And FIR was also filed against him in Rampur.

But Akhilesh who was addressing a rally in Moradabad, insisted Azam Khan had not made any such statement.

“SP is a party that respects women and Khan’s statement was in context with another leader. May be, the media is showing a manipulated and edited video,” he said.

The SP chief also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Yadav said that failing to take on the alliance (SP, BSP and RLD), he had forgotten his (Akhilesh’s) name.

“Yesterday, he was calling me `Babua’. Sensing the strength of the alliance, he has forgotten my name and on May 23, we will give a name to our coalition and give a new PM to the country,” Akhilesh said while canvassing for alliance candidate ST Hassan.

He also attacked the Congress and accused it of working to weaken the alliance. “The Congress and the BJP are two faces of the same coin. You (Congress) are limited to two seats only, that is why you are not a part of our alliance. Our fight is with the BJP,” he said.

First Published: Apr 15, 2019 20:36 IST