Ghaziabad: A written complaint was filed on Wednesday after posters targeting Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav appeared at several locations across Ghaziabad, including Ambedkar Nagar, New Gandhi Nagar, Bagh Bhathyari, Hapur Road and Rafiq Nagar.While SP workers staged protests and demanded action against those behind the posters, district president Faizal Husain alleged that they were part of a conspiracy to damage the party’s image ahead of the 2027 assembly elections, though he refrained from naming any party. He claimed the move was driven by the SP’s growing political strength in the region.“A deliberate attempt has been made to humiliate party president Akhilesh Yadav. We have lodged a formal complaint at Madhuban Bapudham police station. We geotagged the locations where the posters were put up and submitted the evidence,” Husain said.The controversy comes days after Akhilesh’s “chavanni to rupiya” remark, widely seen as a dig at Rashtriya Lok Dal’s decision to leave the SP-led alliance and join the BJP-led NDA ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.Addressing a gathering in Lucknow on Aug 16, Akhilesh said: “Humne chavanni ka rupya bana diya tha, tab bhi humein chhod kar chale gaye wo.” (Loosely translated as, “We turned a 25-paise coin into a rupee, yet they still left us.”)Though Akhilesh did not name any individual or party, the remark was interpreted as a reference to RLD, which had contested the 2022 state assembly elections in alliance with SP.The “chavanni” reference itself dates back to the run-up to the 2022 polls, when BJP repeatedly claimed that RLD would switch sides after the elections. Responding to the speculation at a public meeting, RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary had then said: “Main koi chavanni hoon jo palat jaunga? (am I a 25-paise coin that I will flip?)”Akhilesh’s recent remark appeared to revive that exchange and triggered unease within RLD.On Wednesday, however, senior RLD leader and Khatauli MLA Madan Lal distanced his party from the posters, saying the controversy could be the work of “overzealous” workers.“There are overzealous party workers in both parties, and it seems it could be their doing. I am not saying that the RLD has any hand in it. That is a subject of investigation. As of now, we do not know who put up the posters, and as an official representative of the RLD, I want to categorically state that our party has no role in it,” he said.With assembly elections due next year, the poster row has stirred political waters in western UP, traditionally an RLD stronghold where SP is seeking to expand its footprint.In the 2022 assembly polls, RLD contested 33 seats and won eight — Budhana, Chhaprauli, Meerapur, Purqazi, Sadabad, Shamli, Siwalkhas and Meerut Cantonment. Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when an SP-RLD alliance appeared likely, RLD instead joined NDA. It contested Baghpat and Bijnor and won both seats, while Jayant Chaudhary subsequently joined the Narendra Modi govt.
