Get your own ticket confirmed first, Akhilesh Yadav tells Yogi Adityanath on Ayodhya challenge

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday responded to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s challenge to contest the upcoming Assembly election from Ayodhya by asking the Chief Minister to first get his own ticket confirmed.

“Those whose own tickets are not confirmed are talking about tickets. The Chief Minister should first get his own ticket confirmed,” Mr. Yadav told reporters in Lucknow after paying floral tributes to socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan at the Jayaprakash Narayan International Centre (JPNIC) on his birth anniversary.

The SP chief added: “Our wind will sweep away arrogant people. Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan dedicated his entire life to save democratic values and improve the society. He worked with the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, fought against the British in the freedom movement. When inflation and unemployment were at their peak in the country, Jayaprakash Narayan led the students and youth and worked to bring about a change in the country. He gave socialist ideas. In the Samajwadi government, a magnificent and big memorial JPNIC was built in the name of Bharat Ratna Jayaprakash Narayan. Today, on his birth anniversary, all socialist people take a pledge to follow the path shown by Jayaprakash Narayan and take forward his idea of total revolution.”

Mr. Yadav had on Thursday challenged Mr. Adityanath to contest from Ayodhya, claiming that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been conducting surveys since the SP announced Pawan Pandey as its candidate and had failed to find a suitable nominee for the seat. On Saturday, Mr. Adityanath said he was ready to contest from Ayodhya and urged Mr. Yadav to enter the fray from the same constituency, saying the two should settle the contest “face-to-face”.