LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav got himself vaccinated on Monday against Covid-19 at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram.
As a photograph of the SP founder was posted by Samajwadi Party’s verified official handle, it got the twitterati busy.
The ruling BJP was quick to react, seeking an apology from SP national president Akhilesh Yadav for his “BJP vaccine” comments.
The SP founder had been admitted to the Gurugram hosptial on April 7 and has been under medical supervision ever since for regular monitoring of his health parameters.
On Monday, the 82-year-old veteran politician took his first dose of the vaccine.
Moments later, a photograph of Mulayam wearing the red SP cap while taking the jab was uploaded by SP’s verified Twitter handle.
The BJP was quick to respond.
Party state president Swatantra Dev Singh tweeted the photograph expressing hope that taking inspiration from the SP founder, the party’s national president and cadres would also get themselves vaccinated.
Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya also tweeted MSY’s photo and wrote: “If Akhilesh Yadav is to be believed, party’s founder Mulayam Singh Yadav ji took the BJP vaccine jab…” Maurya said it was now up to the people to decide whether Mulayam had provided BJP publicity or put an end to the confusion spread by his son.
“SP founder and former UP CM Mulayam Singh Yadav, thank you for taking the ‘Swadeshi’ vaccine.Your taking the jab is proof that what SP national president Akhilesh Yadav had said about the vaccine was baseless.
Akhilesh Yadav should apologise for it,” Maurya said in another tweet.
Mulayam is not the only member of the Yadav clan to have got himself vaccinated.
The SP founder’s younger son, Prateek Yadav, and “chhoti bahu” Aparna Yadav were also vaccinated recently.
In January, just after the launch of the Covid vaccination drive, the SP chief had called it a “BJP vaccine”.
“How can I trust the vaccine which will be used for vaccination by the BJP? We cannot get inoculated by the BJP’s vaccine,” Akhilesh had said in response to a media query at a press conference in Lucknow on January 2.
The BJP had then, too, described it as an attempt to question the hard work that Indian doctors and scientists had put in to produce the vaccine.
The party described Akhilesh’s statement as an attempt to spread confusion among the people about the efficacy of the vaccine.
A day later, Akhilesh explained that he had full faith in the country’s doctors and scientists and that he was in no confusion about their ability to make the vaccine.