Yogi, Akhilesh two sides of same coin: Owaisi

Farrukhabad: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday dubbed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav as “two sides of the same coin”.

Owaisi, the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief and Hyderabad MP, made the remark while addressing an election rally here.

”Yogi (Adityanath) and Akhilesh (Yadav) are two sides of the same coin,” said Owaisi while seeking votes for the candidates of Bhagidari Parivartan Morcha so that former UP minister Babu Singh Kushwaha could be made the UP CM.

While likening Akhilesh Yadav to Yogi Adityanath, Owaisi did not explain how the two leaders were similar. He, however, had been asserting in the past that both Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav could become UP CMs on ”charity votes” of 19 percent Muslims, far outnumbering the votes of nine percent Yadavs.

The Bhagidari Parivartan Morcha was launched as a pre-poll alliance of AIMIM with little-known Jan Adhikar Party of former Uttar Pradesh minister Babu Singh Kushwaha and an all-India body of government employees of the backward, Dalits, and minority community, founded by Kanshi Ram in the 1970s. Farrukhabad goes to the polls in the third phase of the seven-phase UP assembly elections and votes on February 20.

While addressing the meeting, Owaisi termed elections as a battle for social justice and said, ”We have to win this battle (for social justice) through voting.” Attacking the BJP, he accused the party of meting out step-motherly treatment to Farrukhabad district.

Despite all the MLAs of the district belonging to the BJP, no development work was carried out by this double-engine government in the district, Owaisi alleged.

Owaisi had launched the new pre-poll front, Bhagidari Parivartan Morcha on January 22, promising two chief ministers and three deputy chief ministers for Uttar Pradesh, if the new front is voted to power.

Out of the two CMs, one will belong to the backward classes and the other to the Dalit community, he said, adding the state will also have three Dy CMs, with one belonging to the Muslim community.

Owaisi, however, had offered no explanation under what provision of the Constitution he will have two CMs for a state.