Yogi Adityanath’s ‘bottle in pocket’ charge gets a ‘bhaang in water’ response

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav retaliated to Yogi Adityanath’s remarks about having a ‘bottle in pocket’.  On Monday, Yogi Adityanath criticized Akhilesh Yadav’s handling of tax agency raids in Kannauj and Kanpur.

Yogi Adityanath told a public meeting in Sitapur: ‘Babua [referring to Akhilesh Yadav] is going around with a glass in his pocket. He is indulging in a new antic with a Swedish bottle’. Yogi Adityanath was referring to a picture in which Akhilesh Yadav is holding a ‘kullhad’ (earthen cup) in his hand and a silver-capped bottle in his pocket. In local slang, the term ‘botal’ is a bottle of liquor.

According to CM Yogi Adityanath, ‘Akhilesh woke up at noon and roamed around with a bottle in his pocket’. Akhilesh Yadav hit back at the BJP chief with a cannabis jab in response to the ‘botal’ comment. ‘The BJP is feeding CM Yogi Adityanath water from a well in which ‘bhaang’ can be found. He [Yogi Adityanath] has confused a glass bottle, which I use for drinking warm water during campaigns, with something else,’ Akhilesh Yadav said.

‘…hot water can’t be poured in a plastic bottle so I chose this one’, Akhilesh Yadav said. Yogi Adityanath’s multi-crore haul in Kanpur also drew the ire of Akhilesh Yadav, who said ‘taxmen were sent to the BJP-backed perfume trader’.

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THE ‘BOTAL’ CONTROVERSY
Akhilesh Yadav’s Twitter handle posted a picture on Monday night at 02:10 pm of him inspecting the Jai Prakash Narayan International Centre ( JPNIC) in Lucknow. The picture showed Akhilesh Yadav standing with a glass bottle in his pocket and a ‘kullhad’ in his hand. A little over two hours later, the UP BJP’s official handle posted a comment by the CM at the Sitapur rally.

A closer examination reveals that the glass bottle and its screw-on cap resemble a popular Swedish whiskey brand. India Today found that the bottle carried by Akhilesh Yadav was of VEEN Still, a natural mineral water brand that is competing against high-end global products like Perrier, Evian and Ferrarelle. However, the bottle does resemble a slimmer version of a vodka brand manufactured in the southern Swedish region of Scania.