The Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid lashed out equally against Samajwadi Party and Congress for "neglecting" minorities' interests.
LUCKNOW: Maulana Ahmed Bukhari, Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid, is out to give sleepless nights to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.
"Our mission is to convince the Muslims of UP that Mulayam Singh has used them and thrown them aside. Now, we want to teach him a lesson in the next elections," the Imam declared at the inaugural convention of his newly-founded UP United Democratic Front (UDF) here on Wednesday.
Maulana Bukhari lashed out equally against Mulayam's Samajwadi Party and the Congress for "neglecting" minorities' interests.
"For a long time, Muslims have helped make governments of different parties. Now the time has come to demand our share in power. Muslims will get their rightful due only when we have political power in our own hands," the Imam roared, drawing a huge round of applause from the auditorium packed with Muslim clerics from all over UP and from some other states, too.
Maulana Bukhari was in a fiery mode as he painted Mulayam as "anti-Muslim". He said: "Mulayam, who won largely due to our votes, has done nothing for our "qaum" (community). I hold him responsible for the riots in Mau and Aligarh." He said that the Congress died a "natural political death" in UP after the Muslims deserted it, and "now it is the turn of the Samajwadi Party".
The UP UDF is a conglomeration of 22 outfits. It is to the credit of Maulana Bukhari and his lieutenant in this mission, former Civil Aviation Minister CM Ibrahim, that they have managed to get some influential Muslim "tanzeems" (organisations) under the UDF umbrella. These include the Muslim Majlis, the Muslim Majlis Mashawrat (UP), the Awami Dal, the All India Momin Conference and the Majlis-e-Ahrar.
Another jolt for Mulayam would be the anointment of Yusuf Qureshi as the UDF state president. He is the brother of the Minorities' Welfare Minister Haji Yaqub Qureshi, who recently hit the headlines for announcing a huge bounty for the killing of the Danish cartoonist who drew Prophet Mohammed cartoons.
The Samajwadi Party's Muslim face and Urban Development Minister Azam Khan lashed out at such "seasonal" outfits. Such outfits are like frogs in the rain. They surface when the elections are near and then are reduced to the state of beggars going from house to house asking for alms," he said.
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