Govt of fake ads and claims: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hits out at Yogi Adityanath over 'Kolkata flyover' image

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slammed the Uttar Pradesh government over its ad and wrote, "The government is of fake advertisement and false claims."

New Delhi: After an Uttar Pradesh government advertisement in a national English daily created stir online for purportedly using image of a Kolkata flyover, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday (September 12) slammed Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the controversy. 

Vadra, who is also Congress UP in-charge, tweeted in Hindi, "They give fake advertisement, fake jobs of lekhpal were offered to youths, now giving fake pictures of flyover and factories and claiming fake development. Neither do they have any understanding of the people`s issues nor do they have anything to do with it. The government is of fake advertisement and false claims."

इनका काम ही है झूठे विज्ञापन देना। फर्जी लेखपाल बनाकर उप्र के युवाओं को रोजगार देने का झूठ बोला और अब फ्लाईओवर व फैक्ट्रियों की फर्जी तस्वीरें लगाकर विकास के झूठे दावे कर रहे हैं।

न जनता के मुद्दों की समझ है और न ही उनसे कोई सरोकार है, बस झूठे विज्ञापन और हवाई दावों की सरकार है। — Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) September 12, 2021

The full-page advertisement titled 'Transforming Uttar Pradesh Under Yogi Adityanath' was published on Sunday in a leading English daily. The ad showed cut-out of Adityanath with a flyover that resembles Kolkata’s "Maa flyover", as pointed out by many social media users. 

"Before 2017, UP was not taken seriously with regard to investment, but in his four-and-a-half-year rule, that negative perception has been broken and in 2020, it has emerged as the second largest economy in the country," the advertisement read. 

In sharp criticism, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) jabbed that the BJP has indirectly accepted the "development spree" under the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government. 

West Bengal Transport Minister Firhad Hakim tweeted, "By posting the image of our pride Maa flyover of Kolkata as one built in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP government in the northern state has touched a new low of falsehood. It also indirectly admitted the spree of development under the rule of Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal and tried to appropriate it as its own."

In another tweet, Hakim added, "I always knew that Imitation is the best form of flattery but Yogi Adityanath takes it to another level! Images of infrastructure under @MamataOfficial's leadership being shown as theirs isn't just a gaffe by a hired agency, it is a reflection of the actual state of affairs in UP."

I always knew that Imitation is the best form of flattery but #YogiAdityanath takes it to another level!
Images of infrastructure under @MamataOfficial's leadership being shown as theirs isn't just a gaffe by a hired agency, it is a reflection of the actual state of affairs in UP pic.twitter.com/HB02oDoglu — FIRHAD HAKIM (@FirhadHakim) September 12, 2021

Hitting back, the West Bengal BJP said that even if the image was indeed that of Maa flyover, the TMC government does not have any other infrastructural development to flaunt.