‘You’ll also say BJP punctured your cycle’: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Akhilesh Yadav's chopper delay

Speaking to news agency ANI, Union minority affairs minister Mukthar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday questioned whether Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav was cracking jokes ahead of the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Union minority affairs minister Mukthar Abbas Naqvi has taken a dig at Akhilesh Yadav after the Samajwadi Party (SP) president's claims about helicopter delay on Friday.

You'll also say my cycle was punctured and BJP did it, Naqvi said, jabbing Akhilesh on the symbol of his Samajwadi Party, the bicycle.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Naqvi on Saturday questioned whether Yadav was cracking jokes ahead of the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

"You'll also say my cycle was punctured and BJP did it,” Naqvi said, jabbing the SP chief on the symbol of his party, the bicycle.

The minority affairs minister added that this rant is an outcry of defeat ahead of the elections. "It is an outcry of defeat in the election and the depression of the feeling of defeat. Nothing more than that," Naqvi said.

He also alleged that the SP is a party of criminals and gangsters, adding it has promised people to work for their welfare with the support of such criminals.

Akhilesh Yadav, who was supposed to attend an election event in Muzaffarnagar on Friday, alleged that his helicopter was stopped at the Delhi airport without any reason.

Yadav reached the national capital in a commercial flight from Lucknow and had to travel by helicopter to attend a joint press conference with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary in Muzaffarnagar.

After 30 minutes, the SP President was allowed to fly.

“If someone has to go to a press conference and authorities make him wait for about two hours before boarding the helicopter, how will one reach the destination?” Yadav told ANI on Friday and hoped that the Election Commission takes cognizance of the matter.

However, officials at the Delhi airport said that Yadav's helicopter to Muzaffarnagar was delayed due to high air traffic.

“Akhilesh Yadav’s chopper was not granted permission by Air Traffic Control (ATC) to fly initially because of high air traffic. After the clearance was given, the chopper had less fuel. After refueling, the chopper flew to the destined place,” an airport official said on Friday.

(With ANI inputs)