The donkey occupied the prime slot in PM Narendra Modi's speech at Bharaich today.

At the rally in Uttar Pradesh today, he began his address opaquely referring to himself as the "donkey of Gujarat". "The people of this country are my master, I take inspiration from the donkey because I work for people day and night," said Modi on the state's fourth of seven rounds of voting.

The PM targeted Akhilesh's 'donkey' earlier speech this week, saying he was surprised that caste politics was being used on donkeys too. "Mai hairan hoon ki aap ki jaati-wadi maansikta, ki pashu mein bhi unch-neech ka bhav dekhne lag gaye? Gadha aapko itna bura lagne laga? Gadha bhi humein prerna deta hai, woh humesha apne maalik ke prati wafadar hota hai aur zimmedariyon ko nibhata ha," the PM said.

The reference to the donkey alludes to Akhilesh Yadav's remark on the donkeys of Gujarat saying, 'Main sadi ke mahanayak se appeal karta hoon ke Gujarat ke gadhon ka prachar mat karein (I appeal to the superstar of the
century to not campaign for the donkeys of Gujarat) was taken
as more loaded than witty.  Superstar Amitabh Bachchan is the face of Gujarat tourism and one of the ads features the ass of the Rann of Kutch.

Akhilesh went on, "Ek gadhe ka vigyapan aata hai, main iss sadi ke sabse
bade mahanayak se kahunga ke ab aap Gujarat ke gadhon ka prachar mat kariye (There's an ad on TV which shows donkeys. I appeal to century's biggest star...please stop endorsing donkeys of Gujarat)," Akhilesh had said.

Modi hit back today saying, "Akhilesh should know when Congress was in power as part of UPA, it came out with postal stamps on donkeys of Gujarat. Akhileshji aap jahan ke gadhe ki baat kr rahe, wo whi jagah h jahan Gandhi, Sardar Patel ne janm liya, Krishna ne use apna karmbhoomi banaya."

As voting has progressed in Uttar Pradesh, whose result will be used to weigh the PM's chances of winning the next general election in two years, speeches by the main leaders have devolved into invective.