SP finds new icon in ‘Missile Man’ APJ

Lucknow: Aggressively positioning itself against the BJP in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, the Samajwadi Party seems to have found a new icon for itself -- former president APJ Abdul Kalam -- who shares space with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and socialist leaders on Akhilesh Yadav’s campaign rath.

The ‘Samajwadi Vijay Yatra’ rath -- Akhilesh Yadav’s personalised campaign vehicle -- carries pictures of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and socialist icons like Acharya Narendra Dev, Ram Manohar Lohia and Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, apart from that of former president Kalam.

The use of the former president’s picture for election purposes appears uncommon, but Samajwadi Party leaders justify it, citing his proximity to party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav who they claimed was the first person to propose his name for presidency in 2002.They dismissed charges that it was an attempt by the party to compensate for the loss of the party’s “Muslim face” Azam Khan, who is lodged in a jail in Sitapur with dozens of cases registered against him.

“The Samajwadi Party respects all the great personalities, and an attempt has been made to incorporate photographs of a large number of eminent personalities who have given a direction to the country and the society,” SP Chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said. “It was Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) who had proposed his (Kalam) name for the presidential elections in 2002”.

He also dismissed the “loss of Muslim face” theory. “There is no communal angle involved in this, and it is purely a nationalist angle. Azam ji enjoys the same respect, which he was getting earlier in the party.”

When contacted, Abu Asim Azmi, the chief of SP’s Maharashtra unit and an MLA from Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar assembly constituency in Mumbai, said, “APJ Abdul Kalam was a great scientist, and was fondly known as the ‘People’s President’. The attraction which he had among the different sections of the society no other president had.

Azmi also said it was the idea of party chief Akhilesh Yadav to include Kalam’s photo along with those of other eminent personalities. -(PTI)