Newly-elected Congress MP from Firozabad Raj Babbar on Friday took a swipe at Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav for challenging Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi following the defeat of his wife Dimple Yadav in the Lok Sabha bypoll.

“This could be personal for anybody. I can also compare myself with Marlon Brando or Robert De Niro... Everyone has a right to say anything,” he said in reply to a question whether Yadav was comparing himself to Rahul when he said he was ready to accept the challenge thrown by Gandhi in Uttar Pradesh.

Asked about the comparison between the two youth leaders, who are called Yuvraj by their respective supporters, Babbar said, “I don’t know who calls whom the Yuvraj, but my leader is Rahul Gandhi.”

He also took a dig at the SP general secretary Amar Singh.

Asked to comment on media reports that Singh had written a letter to SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, saying that he wants to distance himself from the process of candidate selection in UP, Babbar said: “I had seen him cover his mouth with a mask. It seems his health is not okay. Naturally when one’s health is not correct, one cannot think properly. He (Amar Singh) may not be proving useful for the party.”

Babbar, a former Samajwadi Party leader, developed serious differences with Singh before he quit the party and joined the Congress.

He, however, evaded a direct answer on whether the SP general secretary should renounce politics. “How can I say?” he asked. “If I am ill, I have to decide which doctor I have to go to. How do I know what ailment he has?”

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