The Samajwadi Party on Thursday urged its supporters and workers not to draw comparisons between party leaders and national icons, a day after a controversial poster was put outside its office here that featured split faces of party chief Akhilesh Yadav and B R Ambedkar.

The party, while thanking its supporters for their affection and dedication, expressed concern over the use of such imagery, which had sparked a political row.

“We wholeheartedly thank all our supporters and party workers for their love, affection and commitment,” the party said in a statement on X.

“However, we make a very sensitive appeal that no leader of any party should ever be compared to or equated with any divine and venerable personality in any context,” it said further cautioning against creating or circulating any images, idols, songs, or statements that suggest such comparisons.

“Divine personalities and great men are far above any comparison,” it added.

A political storm erupted Wednesday in Uttar Pradesh over a controversial poster put up outside the Samajwadi Party office in Lucknow that features split faces of party Yadav and Ambedkar.

BSP chief Mayawati took veiled potshots at Yadav while the BJP staged sit-ins and protests against the poster.

The SP has since dissociated itself from the poster, but the controversy has refused to die down with rival parties demanding an apology from Yadav.

The SP had hit back at its rivals and suggested that the poster could be the work of the BJP.

When asked about the poster, SP chief spokesperson Rajendra Chowdhary told PTI, "This is not the official poster of Samajwadi Party... We are not aware of who has put this up. Anyone can put up a poster anywhere. Maybe it's the work of BJP men." Later, when asked about the poster by reporters in Ballia, Yadav had said, "We will let your Lohia Vahini leader Lal Chandra Gautam not to put such posters involving great personalities in future." "Hum samjhayenge aur wo maan bhi jayega" (We will let him understand and he will follow us)," he said.

"Will the BJP ask their leader, who made comments against Ambedkar in Parliament?" Yadav asked in an obvious reference to Home Minister Amit Shah's remark in Parliament.

In Parliament, Shah had said, "it has become fashion to take name of Ambedkar. If they (opposition) had taken name of God so many times, they would have got a place in heaven." The SP leadership has been trying to woo the Dalits, once considered loyal to the BSP, and competing with the BJP for support of the OBCs, considered the mainstays of BJP's phenomenal wins in UP since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

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