Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday took a potshot at Madhya Pradesh Congress stalwart Kamal Nath while responding to his ‘Akhilesh-Vakhilesh’ remark, saying whose name is ‘Kamal’ (lotus)’ won’t call him by his correct name.

‘Kamal’ means Lotus in Hindi, which is the poll symbol of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

“He said this right, that who is Vakhilesh? Akhilesh is there. If they say these kinds of things then Samajwadi Party can also say, but we don’t want to indulge in this. Our relationship with Kamal Nath is very good. His name is so nice. Whose name has ‘kamal’, they will call Vakhilesh only, not Akhilesh,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

On Friday, while campaigning in his stronghold Chhindwara, Nath said his party would win the elections with better than expected numbers. When asked about SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s allegations of “betrayal” against Congress over seat-sharing, Kamal Nath said, “Arre bhai chhodo Akhilesh Vakhilesh (leave it alone).”

The verbal exchange comes amid tension between Samajwadi Party and the Congress — who are INDIA alliance partners — over distribution of seats in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.

The rift stems from the Congress party’s list of 144 candidates. Akhilesh Yadav claimed senior Congress politicians had promised him at least four seats but no Samajwadi Party candidate featured on the list.

Later, the Congress said the alliance was for national politics against BJP, not for the assembly elections.

Yesterday, Akhilesh Yadav called the Congress move a “betrayal”.