SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife, daughter test positive for Covid

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: The entire poll campaign of the Samajwadi party has been put in jeopardy as Dimple Yadav, wife of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, and their younger daughter Tina, have tested positive for the deadly Covid-19 virus here on Wednesday.

Akhilesh Yadav has been campaigning across UP for the assembly election, which is just a couple of months away. He is also likely to get himself tested. However, the development may now cast a shadow on the joint rally which Akhilesh had to address with Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Chaudhary in Aligarh on Thursday.  

At present, Akhilesh has been spearheading his party’s poll campaign by taking out Vijay Rath Yatra. Currently, the SP chief is leading the eighth leg of the yatra — from Mainpuri to Etah in central UP — which has been carved out of a Mercedes Benz bus equipped with five-star facilities.

In a tweet, former SP MP from Kannauj, Dimple Yadav said: “I got a Covid test done, the report of which is positive. I am fully vaccinated and not showing any symptoms. For the safety of myself and others, I have isolated myself,” tweeted Dimple asking all those who might have come in her contact recently to get themselves tested as soon as possible. “All the people who have met me recently are requested to get their test done soon,” she said.

However, it is not confirmed if the SP chief has got himself vaccinated or not. Initially, in January when the vaccination drive had commenced, he called the anti-COVID-19 vaccine that of the BJP and that he would not get it administered.

Later, amending his stand following the sharp criticism, Akhilesh said that he would get vaccinated only after his father Mulayam Singh Yadav decided to get the jab. However, the SP patriarch has already received both doses of the vaccine.

In another comment against the vaccination, Akhilesh had said that he would take the jab only if Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photograph was removed from vaccination certificates. He had also claimed that he was at least at risk of getting the infection again as he had already had COVID-19. “If the government puts a national flag on vaccine certificate, I will take it,” he had said.