“The BJP will win the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, and there should be no doubt about it,” Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Saturday. This after All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi reportedly remarked that the national party will not be allowed to form government in the state. The Om Prakash Rajbhar-led Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party and the AIMIM have announced to fight the elections together. Owaisi had announced on Twitter that his party would contest in around 100 seats in the 2024 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
Owaisi had reportedly said, "Inshallah, (we) will not allow Yogi (Adityanath) to become the chief minister of UP again. If our morale is high and we work hard, then everything will happen. Inshallah, our endeavour is that the BJP government is not formed in Uttar Pradesh."
Reacting to the AIMIM chief's statement, Adityanath on Saturday said, "Owaisi ji is a big national leader, he goes to different parts of the country for campaigning, and he has his own 'janaadhaar' (voter base). If he has challenged the BJP, then the BJP worker accepts his challenge."
"The BJP will form the government, and there should be no doubt on this," the chief minister said. He added that the BJP's central leadership has fixed a target of 300 plus Assembly seats in the 2022 elections. The party will win over 300 seats, Adityanath asserted.
A few days ago, making a pitch for AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party President Om Prakash Rajbhar had said if Owaisi becomes a voter of Uttar Pradesh, then he too can become the Chief Minister of the state. Without naming Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Rajbhar said that "a person proved to be clever, and he came from Uttarakhand to the state, became a voter of Uttar Pradesh and then became Chief Minister".
"If AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi becomes a voter of Uttar Pradesh, then he can become the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh," he said while speaking to reporters in Rasra in Ballia. Claiming that Muslims constitute 20 percent of the state's population, the SBSP president said their representation should be there in the government as per their population. This is their right, he said.
"Why cannot a son of a Muslim become Chief Minister or a Deputy Chief Minister? Is being a Muslim a crime? The BJP had entered into an agreement with Mehbooba Mufti, who always spoke of separatism and Pakistan, to form government in Jammu and Kashmir," Rajbhar said.