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Owaisi’s visit to dargah in Bahraich triggers war of words between BJP, Bhagidari Morcha in U.P.
Uttar Pradesh backward class welfare minister Anil Rajbhar says the alliance between AIMIM and SBSP is an insult to the Rajbhar community
All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s visit to dargah sharif at Bahraich to pay obeisance to medieval Ghaznavid general Ghazi Salar Masud alias Ghazi Miyan on Thursday sparked a war of words between the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha constituents — AIMIM and the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP).
Terming the visit of Owaisi to the dargah as an insult to Maharaja Suheldev, an 11th century ruler, who is said to have defeated and killed Masud in a battle at Bahraich in 1034 AD, Uttar Pradesh’s backward class welfare minister Anil Rajbhar said the alliance between AIMIM and SBSP was an insult to the backward Rajbhar community.
The BJP government in U.P. was working to restore the pride of Suheldev by constructing a memorial and installation of a statue at Chittaura in Bahraich, he said.
Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Sardhana assembly seat in Meerut district Sangeet Som, too, lashed out at Owaisi and Om Prakash Rajbhar.
“The leaders of Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha have hurt the sentiments of the Hindu community who revered Maharaja Suhdeldev,” he said.
Announcing the launch of the campaign for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly election, Owaisi hit back at the BJP leaders, “We are not jokers of the circus but ring masters, all will dance to our tunes.”
He alleged that BJP was trying to divert the attention from the mismanagement by the state government during the Covid pandemic.
He further alleged that a large number of deaths were reported in U.P. due to the failure of the state government when the second wave of Covid-19 hit the state. Hundreds of bodies were dumped in rivers and patients admitted in hospitals across the state did not get oxygen, he claimed.
The Covid vaccination in UP was also slow and merely 3% people had received the vaccine doses, he alleged. [According to official figures, 3.52 crore or 35.2 million doses have been administered in U.P. since January 16].
Inaugurating the office of the party’s district unit in Bahraich, Owaisi said AIMIM will contest the 2022 assembly election in alliance with SBSP-led Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha which would highlight the failure of the BJP government to keep the promises made during the 2017 assembly election.
SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar said BJP leaders were trying to drive a wedge between the AIMIM and the SBSP over the issue of Maharaja Suheldev and Salar Masud as they feared that OBC (Other Backward Class) voters will not support the BJP in the assembly election.
The Mehbooba Mufti-led People Democratic Party formed a government in Jammu and Kashmir with the support of BJP in 2016 and it was an unholy alliance, he said. The SBSP will contest the assembly election in alliance with the AIMIM, he asserted.
“We will work on Backward-Muslim and Dalit unity to win the assembly election,” he said.
Political observer SK Srivastava said the main political parties — the BJP, the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress — were working to consolidate the support of the backward and Scheduled Caste communities in the run-up to the 2022 assembly election but splinter groups like Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha, a coalition of various caste leaders, were looking to upset their applecart. The BJP and SP were trying to win the support of the small political parties that enjoyed some influence over various castes in the state, he said.
