Akhilesh bags in Gujarat

Manas Dasgupta

Ahmedabad, June 13

The BJP government in Gujarat has been caught distributing schoolbags with pictures of former Uttar Pradesh Samajwadi Party Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

The faux pas causing a major embarrassment to the BJP has come to light in the tribal-dominated Chhota-Udepur district carved out of the Vadodara district and is not immediately known if similar bags have been distributed in other districts too.

The schoolbags, as part of the state government’s scheme to encourage people from backward classes to send their kids to schools, are distributed every year during the “Shala Pravesh Utsav” (school admission celebrations), which began with the reopening of the schools after summer vacation in the state yesterday.

Over 12,000 bags were distributed in Chhota-Udepur district with the sticker “Jilla Shikshan Sakha” (District Education Department). But on suspicion when the stickers were pulled out, out came another sticker with the picture of smiling Akhilesh and UP slogan “Khub Padho, Khub Badho.” An embarrassed Education Minister Bhupendra Chudasma has ordered an inquiry. “The bags were purchased online from a Surat-based private company at Rs124 each,” he said.