Hyderabad: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday said the by-election results in Uttar Pradesh clearly show that the Samajwadi Party (SP) is incapable of defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
"UP by-poll results show Samajwadi Party is incapable of defeating BJP, they don't have intellectual honesty. The minority community shouldn't vote for such incompetent parties. Who is responsible for BJP's win, now, whom will they name as B-team, C-team," Asaduddin Owaisi told ANI.
He also blamed SP chief Akhilesh Yadav for the party's defeat in the Rampur and Azamgarh bypolls.
"Akhilesh Yadav is so arrogant. His father (former UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav) was a member of parliament from that seat. Then he got elected. He does not even go there to tell people why he was not contesting from the seat," the Hyderabad MP told news agency ANI in an interview.
Bypolls were held in Azamgarh months after Akhilesh Yadav chose to lead the opposition's charge in the state assembly and resigned from the Lok Sabha seat. The Rampur seat has been a stronghold of SP leader Azam Khan, who has been booked in dozens of cases by the state police. The SP, however, calls it 'vendetta politics'.
Bhojpuri actor-singer and BJP candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirahua' won the Azamgarh seat while another BJP candidate, Ghanshyam Lodhi, wrested the Rampur parliamentary seat from the Samajwadi Party.
Both seats were considered Samajwadi Party bastions.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the by-poll wins in Azamgarh and Rampur are historic. In a tweet, PM Modi said, it indicates wide-scale acceptance and support for the double engine Governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh. The Prime Minister said he is grateful to the people for their support. He also appreciated the efforts of BJP Karyakartas in Uttar Pradesh.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said that victory in bypolls has sent an optimistic message regarding the 2024 General Elections.