Lucknow: Taking on AIMIM's chief Asaduddin Owaisi's challenge, the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the BJP workers will accept the challenge to bring the party to the state power in 2022. Yogi also ruled out any doubt about the BJP's return to power.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi, who has formed an alliance with Om Prakash Rajbhar-led Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, reportedly said that it would not allow Yogi to come at the helm of the state power after the State Assembly elections, which are due in 2022.
Owaisi was also said to have claimed that his party along with the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party would ensure that the BJP does not form the government in Uttar Pradesh.
Responding to Owaisi's challenge, Yogi said that it was the responsibility of the BJP workers to accept the challenge of a big national leader like Owaisi. The BJP's central leadership had fixed a target of 300-plus assembly seats in polls and it will win, Yogi added.
A few days ago, making a pitch for AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party President Om Prakash Rajbhar had said if Owaisi becomes a voter of Uttar Pradesh, then he too can become the Chief Minister of the state.
Earlier, Om Prakash Rajbhar had without naming Yogi directly said that if a man from Uttarakhand could become a Chief Minister of UP, Owaisi can also become the Chief Minister of the state if Owaisi becomes a voter.
The current government did not have proportional representation of Muslims that constitute 20 per cent of the state's population, Rajbhar said. "Why cannot a son of a Muslim become Chief Minister or a Deputy Chief Minister? Is being a Muslim a crime? The BJP had entered into an agreement with Mehbooba Mufti, who always spoke of separatism and Pakistan, to form government in Jammu and Kashmir," Rajbhar said.
"If AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi becomes a voter of Uttar Pradesh, then he can become the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh," he said while speaking to reporters in Rasra in Ballia. Claiming that Muslims constitute 20 per cent of the state's population, the SBSP president said their representation should be there in the government as per their population. This is their right, he said.