Lucknow, Oct 12 (PTI) AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday termed the war of words between Yogi Adityanath and Akhilesh Yadav a ‘noora kushti’ (fixed wrestling match) and suggested that the Uttar Pradesh chief minister contest the next assembly elections from Sambhal and the SP chief from Gorakhpur.
Owaisi’s tongue-in-cheek suggestion — that the two rivals contest from each other’s strongholds — comes amid Adityanath and Yadav’s exchange over the past few days, daring one another to contest the 2027 assembly polls from Ayodhya.
Sambhal is known to be a Samajwadi Party (SP) stronghold with a high percentage of Muslim voters, while the chief minister has been a five-time MP from the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituency and currently represents the Gorakhur Urban seat in the state assembly.
Speaking to reporters in Lucknow earlier on Monday, Owaisi said, “The biggest issue in Ayodhya today is the embezzlement of funds at the Ram temple, which runs into thousands of crores of rupees.”
“The accused currently in jail are talking about securing bail, while those who had actually committed the theft are roaming freely,” he said.
Referring to the political sparring over the Ayodhya seat, Owaisi said a ‘noora kushti’ (fake wrestling match) is going on there.
“That is why I said that Yogi Adityanath should contest the election from Sambhal. He should go to Sambhal and say that ‘we demolished your mosque, so vote for me (Adityanath)’. And, god willing, the public there will defeat him.
“Meanwhile, Akhilesh should go and contest from Gorakhpur and declare, ‘I (Yadav) have made that person a Rajya Sabha poll candidate whose father defeated the INDIA bloc candidate in Jharkhand by poaching MLAs,” Owaisi quipped.
Yadav had last week first suggested that the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, if he was confident, contest the Ayodhya seat. Within two days, Adityanath asked Yadav in turn to be an Ayodhya candidate from the SP.
On Sunday, Yadav hit back at him, saying the SP’s candidate, Pawan Pandey, was enough to “blow away” the arrogance of the BJP government, punning on the word “Pawan”, which means air in Hindi.
After Owaisi remarked on this exchange, Asim Waqar, AIMIM’s most prominent face in Uttar Pradesh until he joined the Congress in September, also weighed in.
He asked why Owaisi was suggesting constituencies for Congress and SP leaders instead of contesting from Lucknow himself.
“Will spice up the contest, won’t it?” Waqar said, speaking to PTI.
The Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections are due in 2027.
Owaisi has repeatedly offered to join hands with the opposition parties, including the SP, to challenge the BJP in the 2027 polls. Yadav, however, has indicated that the SP intends to continue with its existing alliance partners.
AIMIM, which has little presence in the state, has often faced allegations from opposition leaders that it helps the BJP by splitting anti-BJP votes, a charge Owaisi has denied. PTI NAV MAN KIS
PRK
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