To prevent wastage of money and provide schoolchildren with new schoolbags before the beginning of a new academic session, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered officials to distribute bags that have pictures of former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and carry the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) slogan.

Just before the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the SP government had sanctioned printing of over 1.8 crore schoolbags with Yadav’s picture and party’s slogan using state government funds. However, the government was unable to distribute all these bags as the model code of conduct came into effect for the assembly election.

In the past, the SP government had distributed salt packets and plates for schoolchildren, all with stickers of Yadav and slogans of the party. The laptops that the SP government distributed in 2012 had pictures of the then Chief Minister and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav as screensavers.

According to reports, Adityanath weighed the financial implications and decided not to waste the bags. He has also decided to not use any party’s name in the next batch of schoolbags that will be provided to schoolchildren. NDTV has reported that the new set of schoolbags which will be printed by the state government will simply say 'Mukhya Mantri Yojana' or 'Uttar Pradesh Yojana'.