Trinamool trolls 'thuggy Yogi' for 'stealing images from Bengal'

An error in a newspaper advertisement provided fodder for the Trinamool Congress to target Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

On Sunday, The Sunday Express, the weekend edition of The Indian Express, carried a three-page advertisement of the Uttar Pradesh government. The front page featured a cut-out of Yogi Adityanath, along with a collage of a factory and a flyover. Social media users soon noted the flyover appeared to be the Maa Flyover in eastern Kolkata. The flyover even featured Kolkata's ubiquitous yellow-colour taxi.

Not surprisingly, Trinamool Congress leaders and supporters soon joined in the debate.

Outspoken TMC MP Mahua Moitra was among the first to take a pot-shot at the Uttar Pradesh chief minister. Moitra referred to Yogi Adityanath as “thuggy Yogi” and asked him to change his soul. She tweeted, "Thuggy Yogi in his UP ads with Kolkata’s MAA flyover, our JW Marriott & our iconic yellow taxis! Change your soul or at least your ad agency Gudduji! P.S. Looking forward to FIRs against me in Noida now :-)"

TMC national general secretary and MP Abhishek Banerjee accused Yogi Adityanath of stealing images of development in West Bengal. He tweeted, "Transforming UP for @myogiadityanath means stealing images from infrastructure seen in Bengal under @MamataOfficial's leadership and using them as his own! Looks like the 'DOUBLE ENGINE MODEL' has MISERABLY FAILED in BJP’s strongest state and now stands EXPOSED for all!

TMC MLA Mukul Roy, who returned to the party from the BJP after the recent Assembly polls, used the newspaper advertisement to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Roy tweeted, "Mr.

@narendramodi is so helpless to save his party that other than changing CMs, he has also had to resort to using pictures of growth & infrastructure seen under @MamataOfficial's leadership, as his own..."

Interestingly, The Indian Express responded to the controversy over the image and "deeply regretted" the error. The official handle of The Indian Express tweeted, "A wrong image was inadvertently included in the cover collage of the advertorial on Uttar Pradesh produced by the marketing department of the newspaper. The error is deeply regretted and the image has been removed in all digital editions of the paper."

Saket Gokhale, an RTI activist who joined the TMC recently, questioned The Indian Express over the tweet and asked whether the publication was being bullied. Gokhale asked, "Are you really telling us that the team of @myogiadityanat doesn’t proof-check an advertorial they paid for before is it published? Pls blink twice if @ShishirGoUP& @shalabhmani are bullying you, Indian Express.

Don’t let them make a Vijay Rupani of you.”