Dig at Rahul, Akhilesh: Yogi Adityanath's parting shot as MP

New Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday quit his Lok Sabha membership. Before resigning, Adityanath, a five-time member of Parliament from Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh, spoke in the Lok Sabha during the discussion on the Finance Bill, which also turned out to be his farewell speech. He had the treasury benches in splits when he took a dig at Congress Vice-president Rahul Gandhi and former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav, and why the jodi, or the alliance of the two leaders and their respective parties, lost. 

Adityanath, who is 44 years old, said: “I am one year younger than Rahulji and a year older than Akhileshji. The fact that I came in between their partnership may be the reason for the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance’s failure.” To this, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said that Adityanath was now the CM of UP, and it was hoped that he would maintain the dignity of his office. As Adityanath prepared to retort, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan advised the UP CM to accept Kharge’s words as a blessing from an elder.