SP chief Akhilesh Yadav responds to PM Modi’s ‘cycle’ remark, says ‘cycle is pride of rural India’

Soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at the Samajwadi Party and its election symbol, which is a cycle, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav issued a response on the same through social media, calling cycle “the pride of rural India”.

PM Modi attended a rally in Hardoi on Sunday on phase 3 of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections 2022 and talked about the Ahmedabad serial blasts that took place in 2008, claiming the lives of 56 people, after which the court recently sentenced the convicts to death.

Speaking at the BJP rally, PM Modi had said, “I remained silent for so many years because the hearing on the Ahmedabad blasts case was going on. Today, when the court has given them the punishment, I am raising the subject before the country.”

PM Modi further launched an attack at the Samajwadi Party and its election symbol, saying that "in the initial blasts, the bombs were kept on cycles...I wonder why they [terrorists] opted cycles."

Issuing a response to the statement by PM Modi, Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav defended his party symbol and said that the cycle is the “pride of rural India”.

 

खेत और किसान को जोड़ कर उसकी समृद्धि की नींव रखती है, हमारी साइकल,

सामाजिक बंधनों को तोड़ बिटिया को स्कूल छोड़ती है, हमारी साइकल

महंगाई का उसपर असर नहीं, वो सरपट दौड़ती है, हमारी साइकल,

साइकल आम जनों का विमान है, ग्रामीण भारत का अभिमान है, साइकल का अपमान पूरे देश का अपमान है। pic.twitter.com/Nf1Bq2XtjE — Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) February 20, 2022

 

Tweeting his response to the Prime Minister’s remarks, Yadav said, “Our cycle connects farms with farmers and lays the foundation for their prosperity. Our cycle breaks through social bounds and drops daughters to school.”

The SP chief further wrote, “Our cycle remains unaffected by inflation, it runs at its own pace. A cycle is the aeroplane of the common people, it is the pride of rural India, to insult a cycle is to insult the entire nation.” Akhilesh Yadav also tweeted a picture of a child riding a pillion on a cycle.

This comes as the UP elections 2022 phase 3 concluded on February 20. Voting took place in 59 constituencies and the overall turnout was over 60 percent. The fourth phase of voting in Uttar Pradesh will take place on February 23, and the counting of the votes will be done on March 10.