"UP will have best amenities becoming Kerala": Pinarayi taunts Yogi

Thiruvananthapuram: Giving a sharp response to Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adithyanat's latest dig on Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan said that UP would enjoy the best in many things if it becomes Kerala.

The Kerala CM took his retort to Twitter that if the north Indian state becomes Kerala, UP will enjoy the best education, health services, social welfare, living standards and harmonious society where people won't be murdered in the name of religion or caste. He added that the poll-bound UP people would want the same.

Earlier on Thursday, Adityanath said in a video post on Twitter that if the voters of UP have not cast their votes wisely, the state will become Kashmir, Kerala or West Bengal.

There were more responses to the puny remark made by Adityanth. Kerala Opposition leader VD Satheesan tweeted, addressing UP people that they should vote to become like Kerala. He advised them to choose plurality, harmony, inclusive development to bigotry. Keralites, Bengalis and Kashmiris are also proud Indians, he added.

Meanwhile, CPI(M) Kerala tweeted that Kerala had consistently ranked as the best-governed state when UP was one of the worst. Further, it said that Niti Aayog's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Index ranks Kerala as Number 1, while UP performed the worst. Sarcastically, it advised voters to note that voting BJP out in UP will turn the state into Kerala.

The News Minute reported that this wasn't the first time Adityanth took a dig on Kerala. He had said in 2017 that Kerala should learn from UP's health care. But then Pinaryi Vijayan compared UP's poor performance in infant mortality rate with Kerala's. He also taunted Adityanath saying that it is amusing that the latter found time for Kerala even after severe problems existed in UP.