Packed in red and olive-green glass Bottles is the ”scent of socialism”. This is not an idiom or phrase but a product the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh has launched – its party’s perfume.
Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has launched a perfume with the Samajwadi Party’s election symbol called “Samajwadi Sugandh” or “Attar”. A Samajwadi legislator who runs a perfume business crafted it in the Kannauj district, known for its fragrance industry.
The move was seen as one of the soft outreaches by Mr Yadav’s party ahead of the UP-Assembly Election early next year, which is likely to be fought fiercely between the ruling BJP under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the Samajwadi Party. Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party is also prepping a solid campaign.
The Scent of Diversity
The colours on the perfume bottle resemble the Samajwadi Party flag – olive green and red. The legislator said the fragrance has ingredients from “Kashmir to Kanyakumari” to represent the country’s diversity.
He said Mr Yadav himself gave suggestions on how the perfume should be crafted.
Taking a swipe at the BJP in an Instagram post from the Samajwadi perfume launch, Mr Yadav said this fragrance belongs to everyone. Still, a flower that blossomed through lies will never give out the aroma, alluding to the BJP’s election symbol, a lotus.
The Samajwadi Party launched a similar perfume ahead of the 2017 assembly elections, and the party lost badly to the BJP.
“It took two scientists about four months to perfect this perfume. Our national president gave us directions about this. This perfume has ingredients from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. When you use it, you will be able to smell the fragrance of Samajwadi (socialism) and brotherhood,” Samajwadi legislator Pushpraj Jain said.
Mr Yadav said, “This is a good perfume. Those who use it will remind others with the fragrance of the Samajwadi Party and its ideology.”
Responding to Mr Yadav’s swipe, UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh said the perfume launched by the Samajwadi party chief will “stink with the sins of Samajwadi Party.”
The false smell from their protection of the corrupt, appeasement, goonda raj and open loot of government money cannot be erased. Due to this, people ousted the Samajwadi Party from power.
The people of the state will no longer give a chance to the poisonous cocktail of Samajwadi Party’s goonda raj and corruption,” Mr Singh said.Â
Up Election Campaign
The Akhilesh Yadav led Samajwadi Party had kicked off its campaign on October 12 in the state with a ”Vijay Rath Yatra” from Kanpur. Recalling his experience in alliance politics, former chief minister Yadav had maintained that the SP would not have any tie-up with “bigger parties”.Â
“I don’t think we will have any alliance with Congress or BSP.” He further added that the ruling “BJP knows SP is the real challenge” and therefore, it is trying to create a wrong perception about increasing strength of Congress in UP.
Meantime, the party also organised protests at the state level on Monday to mark the fifth anniversary of demonetisation, saying the decision led to the loss of lives and destroyed businesses. Akhilesh Yadav tweeted that demonetisation neither stopped corruption nor black money or terrorism, as asserted by the government of BJP.
“On fifth anniversary of demonetisation, the BJP should expose those who absconded or settled abroad with black money. No black money stopped nor corruption or terrorism,” he said.
