Sify
Varanasi, Apr 27: He is known to be a politician who whips up emotions. Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's trusted lieutenant and Uttar Pradesh Urban Development Minister, Mohammed Azam Khan is an expert crowd-puller who can really sway partisan crowds.
This time he is falling back on rabid language to attack the Samajwadi Party's (SP) sworn enemy, Rahul Gandhi.
"If a mosque looks like a building to Rahul Gandhi, then Rahul Gandhi looks like a pig to me," he said at a recent rally.
The quality of electioneering in Uttar Pradesh has been deteriorating. The BJP is already facing the music for becoming linked to an extremely controversial CD. And Rahul Gandhi is paying a price for threatening to take a big slice away from the SP's assured minority vote bank.
"What work has been done in UP? I think the government did nothing," said Rahul Gandhi at a rally.
To top it all, Azam Khan was deliberately playing with religious sensitivities when he said, "Rahul Gandhi called the Somnath Temple just a building!"
It's a no holds barred campaign. The language often lacks civility and decorum. The war for Uttar Pradesh is going to be more and more bitter as the long election schedule draws to a close.