Sharpening his attack on the SP chief, Owaisi alleged that Akhilesh Yadav has always created fear among Muslims.
“Nineteen per cent (of voters) are Muslims and nine per cent are Yadavs, but the chief minister will be yours (of the Yadav clan) and we (Muslims) will not even get the job of a peon,” the AIMIM chief said.
Without taking the name of Rudauli’s SP leader Rushdi Miyan who lost to BJP candidate Ram Chandar Yadav in the 2017 UP assembly polls, Owaisi asked, “Why SP’s Muslim candidate lost the election and the BJP’s Yadav candidate won it. This means that Yadavs don’t vote for Muslims.”
Earlier in the day, jailed gangster and former MP Atiq Ahmad and his wife joined the AIMIM in the presence of Owaisi in Lucknow.
Owaisi inducted former Samajwadi Party leader Ahmad and his wife claiming that the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party used Muslims as slaves in their parties.
Hitting out at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the SP chief, he alleged that Muslims have been betrayed in the name of secularism.
“Why do Muslims in Ayodhya feel ashamed or apprehensive to even talk about the Babri demolition. All political parties have exploited Muslims and Dalits. Our party will hold majlis in every household,” he said at the rally here.
“Those who are helpless today are Muslims of UP. Everyone got a share in UP, but the Muslims of UP did not get their share. Muslims have been cheated in the name of secularism. We will field our candidate in Rudauli constituency,” Owaisi said.
The venue of the rally was around 20 km away from Dhannipur, where a mosque is coming up pursuant to the Supreme Court verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi case.
Owaisi, however, did not take the name of the mosque in his speech.
He alleged that other political parties do not want the Muslim leadership to develop in the country.
Talking about the controversy over referring to Ayodhya with its old name ‘Faizabad’, he said, “Some people started saying that I don’t want to take the name of Ayodhya. I want to say that Ayodhya belongs to India. Faizabad belongs to India and Owaisi also belongs to India.”
Owaisi said the AIMIM is going to contest 100 seats in the upcoming polls.
He said there is a vast difference between the Majlis of 2017 and the Majlis of 2022, referring to the next year’s polls in the state.
“Now our organisation is strong. Our first effort is that our Muslim leadership should be developed in the biggest state of the country that is Uttar Pradesh,” he added.
“We have been intimidated by (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and Yogi (Adityanath), but we have come to defeat the BJP. People have lost their lives in the COVID-19 pandemic. People have died due to lack of oxygen. The dead bodies were buried on the banks of the river, which were scavenged by the dogs,” he said.
Targeting the Centre, he said the government is worried about the education of women in Afghanistan, while there are no schools for girls in Rudauli constituency here.