New Delhi, Sep 8 — Uttar Pradesh Minister and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) Chief Om Prakash Rajbhar on Tuesday took a jibe at Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav, asking him to join the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) after the former changed the colour of the party's student wing dress code, from the traditional red to blue T-shirts and blue jeans, citing the colour's association with "ideology".
Earlier in the day, the SP Chief said: "The blue colour was chosen for the T-shirts for a reason."
"The colour has always been associated with the Bahujan community and BR Ambedkar. But 'blue' is also a colour of ideology," Akhilesh Yadav said at the party's Chhatra Sabha programme.
Reacting to the change of colour, Rajbhar said: "Akhilesh Ji should ideally join the BSP. He will get a better blue cap and turban there. He should also change the colour of his kurta to blue."
Earlier in the day, the SBSP Chief had told IANS that the Samajwadi Party is going to "betray the Bahujan community".
"The schemes created for the development of the poor in the name of great personalities from the Bahujan community—who ended those schemes? Akhilesh Yadav...No matter how many tricks he tries, the public knows everything about his tenure, and his (Samajwadi Party) government is not coming back to power in Uttar Pradesh," Rajbhar remarked.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi echoed, saying: "The Samajwadi Party knows that when people see its red colour, they understand that it denotes danger. That is why they are changing their colour today, but doing so will not erase the stains on their political record. They have deliberately used blue colour to attract Dalits."
"But the people of Uttar Pradesh know that from 2012 to 2017, when Akhilesh Yadav was the Chief Minister, the state recorded the highest number of incidents of atrocities against Dalits in the country," he told IANS.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party spokesperson Sunil Singh Yadav hit back at the BJP, accusing it of "hating" the blue colour due to its hatred for those belonging to the backward and Dalit communities, as well as the Constitution.
"They (BJP) don't want a society where everyone is given an equal treatment in terms of caste, class, economic status and religion," he told IANS.
Referring to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge's purification row, the SP leader said: "'Shuddhikaran' means that they still consider the backward communities as impure... this blue colour and red cap will abolish the BJP."