AYODHYA: All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi blew the poll bugle from Ayodhya on Tuesday, rallying surging crowds at Rasulabad village in the district’s lone Muslim-dominated constituency, Rudauli, while announcing that his party would contest 100 seats in UP assembly elections next year.
Throwing the gauntlet to Akhilesh Yadav, he sought a one-on-one public debate with the Samajwadi Party chief to expose his hollow promises to Muslims, while urging the community to come out of the shadows. “Have the Muzaffarnagar rioters been brought to justice? Why do Muslims in Ayodhya feel apologetic about talking about the Babri demolition? All political parties have exploited Muslims and Dalits for votes,” said Owaisi.
Taking a jibe at Samajwadi Party, he said, “Akhilesh has created a fear psychosis among Muslims. Why did SP’s Muslim candidate, Rushdi Miyan, lose the Rudauli seat to a Yadav candidate from BJP? This clearly shows Yadavs don't vote for SP, which has been betraying Muslims in the name of secularism.” Addressing a packed public meeting after visiting the mausoleum of an 18th century Sufi saint in Rudauli, Owaisi said, the BJP regime in UP has done nothing, except change names of towns and cities. Referring to the AIMIM poster controversy over naming Ayodhya as Faizabad, he asked, “Can you bring back those children who died of mystery fever in Firozabad by changing the city’s name.”
Warning that the ‘Taliban chant’ will get shriller in the runup to UP elections to polarise voters, he asked the Centre to clarify its stand on the militia which took over Afghanistan. “Why are they holding parleys, let the government declare India won’t recognise the Taliban,” he said.
“Remember Muslims constitute 19% of the UP electorate and Yadavs only 9% and if you don’t vote with clarity, you will end up not even getting a peon’s job. Everyone is concerned about the condition of women in Afghanistan, but what about Rudauli’s daughters, who don’t have a girls’ school,” he said.
Accusing CM Yogi Adityanath of having a single-point agenda of changing names, he said, “Some people are saying that I dread to take the name of Ayodhya, but I want to tell them Ayodhya belongs to India, Faizabad belongs to India and Owaisi also belongs to India. I will again come to Ayodhya. Are they afraid of me?”
“We are often accused of splitting Muslim votes, but nobody is talking about a Muslim leadership. No political party wants Muslims at the helm and the community has been denied its share. I want to groom a national Muslim leadership from India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. The world saw what happened in Ayodhya on December 6. 1992, but secular parties fear talking about the mosque’s demolition. We have been intimidated by Modi and Yogi, now we have come to defeat BJP. Hundreds of Covid patients died due to lack of oxygen and many bodies were buried along river banks.”
