PM’s taunt on Akhilesh, said – “Bombs were placed in Ahmedabad on his election symbol which is cycle” Akhilesh replied
Prime Minister Modi had targeted the SP while rallying in Hardoi, Modi said- Bombs were planted in Ahmedabad on the cycle which is their election symbol, then I was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. He said that I am surprised that why these terrorists used to use cycles in the blasts. He said that I can never forget that day. On the same day, I had resolved that my government would find these terrorists from the underworld and punish them. He said that some political parties have been kind to such terrorists. These political parties have been soft on terrorism in the interest of vote bank. This is a very dangerous thing for the security of the country, so every countryman should know about it. At the same time, Akhilesh Yadav has tweeted on this.
खेत और किसान को जोड़ कर उसकी समृद्धि की नींव रखती है, हमारी साइकल,
सामाजिक बंधनों को तोड़ बिटिया को स्कूल छोड़ती है, हमारी साइकल
महंगाई का उसपर असर नहीं, वो सरपट दौड़ती है, हमारी साइकल,
साइकल आम जनों का विमान है, ग्रामीण भारत का अभिमान है, साइकल का अपमान पूरे देश का अपमान है। pic.twitter.com/Nf1Bq2XtjE
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) February 20, 2022
Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav retaliated on the taunt, saying that the cycle is the plane of the common man and the pride of rural India. Insulting a bicycle is an insult to the whole country. Akhilesh Yadav tweeted and wrote, ‘By connecting the farm and the farmer, lays the foundation of his prosperity, our cycle breaks social bonds and drops the girl to school, our cycle is not affected by inflation, she gallops, our cycle, Cycle is the aircraft of common people, pride of rural India, insult of cycle is an insult to the whole country.
Meanwhile, we are telling you the story of ‘Cycle’ becoming the election symbol of Samajwadi Party, where you will know why Mulayam Singh Yadav chose ‘Cycle’ as his party’s identity among all the available symbols.
election symbol of samajwadi party
SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav founded the SP on 4 October 1992, and before the 1993 UP assembly elections, the party was allotted a bicycle as its symbol. SP contested 256 seats and won 109. Mulayam became the Chief Minister for the second time.
Mulayam was earlier the chief minister from 1989 to 1991, but then he was part of the Janata Dal, whose election symbol was ‘wheel’. Mulayam has earlier contested elections on the symbol of other parties as well. He won his first assembly election in 1967 as a candidate of the United Socialist Party, whose election symbol was the banyan tree.
Mulayam was elected MLA seven times till 1996. Before the founding of the SP in 1992, Mulayam also contested elections on symbols such as ‘the pair of bulls’ and ‘kandhe par hal dhare kisan’. Of these, the ‘Haldhar Kisan’ was the symbol of the Janata Party, and Mulayam was elected as its candidate from Jaswant Nagar in 1991.
Symbol of bicycle
Samajwadi Party’s UP President Naresh Uttam Patel says, “When it came to choosing the symbol for the 1993 assembly elections, Netaji (Soft) and other senior leaders chose the cycle (out of the available options). This was because, in those days, the cycle was the vehicle of farmers, poor, laborers and middle class, and cycling was cheap and good for health too.
During the formation and expansion of their party, Mulayam and his younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav often rode bicycles. Even after becoming the Chief Minister, Mulayam continued to cycle during the campaign. After differences with Akhilesh, Shivpal formed a separate party, the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP-Lohia), but this time he is contesting from Jaswant Nagar on the SP’s cycle symbol.
On PM’s statement on SP’s election symbol, Patel said, ‘PM makes rhetoric with such remarks. His government is not worried about inflation, unemployment and farmers. The PM works for the rich industrialists, while the SP’s cycle is associated with the poor and farmers.
Satyanarayan Sachan, founding member of SP and Uttarakhand state president, said that even after becoming MLA thrice, Mulayam rode a cycle till 1977. “Later some other party leader collected the money and bought a car for him,” Sachan said.
He said that the symbol of the cycle shows the dedication and commitment of the party for the poor, downtrodden, farmers and working classes. Sachan said, “The way society and socialists move, its two wheels stand while its handle is for balance.”
Significantly, during the previous Akhilesh Yadav government, cycle tracks were built in cities across the state, and cycles were distributed to girl students and labourers. Ahead of the 2012 elections, in which the SP won an absolute majority, Akhilesh Yadav took out a cycle yatra across the state to mobilize workers and voters. He still gives interviews while cycling, even though his campaigns in both 2017 and 2022 were run on heavy chariots.
