Akhilesh Yadav inflated like balloon over 2024 success: Deputy CM KP Maurya

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Saturday slammed Akhilesh Yadav for his remarks critical of him, and said the SP chief has got "inflated like a balloon" post his "success" in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Amid speculation of a rift within the Uttar Pradesh BJP after the party's poor showing in the LS polls compared with the 2014 and the 2019 elections, Yadav has taken jibes at the BJP leader, calling him a "pawn" and a password to "Delhi's Wi-Fi".

In a social media post on Saturday, Maurya called Yadav a Congress "pawn" and asked him to be mindful of his party's defeats in the state in assembly and Lok Sabha polls.

"The Congress' pawn SP president Akhilesh Yadav ji is making absurd statements looking at a certain defeat in the 2027 (assembly polls). He got inflated like a balloon over his successes in the 2024 (Lok Sabha polls) achieved by speaking untruth to people. He must be mindful of the SP's defeat in 2014/17/19/22," Maurya posted on X.

In the 2017 assembly elections, when Keshav Prasad Maurya was the BJP state president, the party and its allies won 325 out of 403 seats in the state while the SP was reduced to 47.

In the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha and 2022 assembly elections, the BJP also got absolute majority in UP.

SP chief Yadav had said on Friday that it has been heard that Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya is a "pawn".

"Corruption is being exposed in the state because some people like Maurya have become 'passwords' to Delhi's Wi-Fi," he said.