The Samajwadi Party (SP) ads screams from the front pages of several dailies in UP.
Memsaab, hum khiladiyon ka kya kasoor tha ki aapne stadium ke saath hamaari ummeedon ke bhi tukde kar diye? (Madam, what was the fault of us sportsmen that along with the stadium, you destroyed our hopes, too?)
The Samajwadi Party (SP) ad screams from the front pages of several dailies in UP. The ad, which carries the photo of a crestfallen young cricketer, refers to the demolition of Lucknow’s Ambedkar Stadium to expand the Ambedkar Memorial nearby.
It goes on to describe how as UP chief minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav had built an international-level stadium in Saifai village of Etawah. The punch line: if you want to get back the respect of sports and sportsmen, vote for Mulayam.
The ad seems to have hit where it hurts. BSP state president Swami Prasad Maurya shot off a rejoinder pointing out that a new stadium was being built in Lucknow at a cost of Rs100 crore.
This is just one in a series of such SP ads targeting Mayawati, sarcastically referring to her as Memsaab. The SP seems to have seized the initiative as far as the ad offensive is concerned. Apart from newspaper ads, the party has also released short films on TV channels with the punch line: “Sansad mein Mulayam, toh ummeed hai kaayam.” (With Mulayam in parliament, hopes remain alive.)
“We decided to expose the failures of the Mayawati government,” says SP leader Shivpal Yadav. “There is an anti-incumbency wave against the BSP regime... it has failed on all fronts,” he says.
Another SP ad touches Mayawati’s raw nerve – her “dream project”, the Ambedkar Park and Memorial in Lucknow. “Memsaab, hum garibon ka kya kasoor tha ki aap ne hamaare vikas ke 1,300 crore rupaye smarak aur park banaane mein phoonk diye magar 130 garibon ka bhi bhala nahin kiya?” (What was the fault of us poor people that you squandered Rs1,300 crore on a park and memorial but did not help even 130 poor people?)
The SP has projected film star Sanjay Dutt as its star campaigner. Dutt also features in an ad where he asks people to vote for Mulayam. His dialogue delivery sounds straight out of a film as he says: “Gareebon ki cycle, kisanon ki cycle, hamaari cycle, aap ki cycle. Yeh cycle Dilli jaayegi” (The cycle is SP’s election symbol.)
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