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NEW DELHI: Union minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary on Saturday hit back at former ally and Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav over his “chavanni” remark, warning that “such arrogance only leads to downfall.”“You could have taken my name if you wnated to use cheap words in this political battle; it wouldn’t have been an issue. Targeting the Jat community and saying ‘we taught them ABCD’? I’ve seen this arrogance up close, and I believe such behaviour only brings downfall,” he wrote in Hindi on X.Jayant Chaudhary’s post came days after Akhilesh Yadav, without naming anyone, said, “Hum logon ne chavanni ko rupaiya bana diya, phir bhi chhod ke chale gaye (We turned 25 paise into a rupee, and yet they left us).”The remark was widely seen as a reference to Jayant as he had himself used the term “chavanni” in January 2022, ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, when the RLD and SP were allies.“Main koi chavanni hoon jo palat jaunga (I am not as light as a 25-paise coin to flip),” he had said at the time. The remark was made in the context of changing political sides.The RLD joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in March 2024. Jayant Chaudhary later became a Union minister after the NDA secured a third consecutive term at the Centre in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.The Jat community is a politically influential group in western Uttar Pradesh. The state is scheduled to hold assembly elections early next year.
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Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati also waded into the controversy, demanding that Akhilesh Yadav apologise to the Jat community for “insulting” former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, Jayant Chaudhary’s grandfather.“When in an alliance, the SP only knows how to get its work done, and once its work is done, it changes its colour like a chameleon and freely uses abusive language against the other party—this is the SP’s old behaviour. In such a situation, people from all sections of society should certainly remain cautious of the SP’s narrow-minded and casteist politics,” the former chief minister posted on X.“People from all sections of society should ensure in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections that this party (SP) does not come to power at all, which would be in their interest,” Mayawati added.
