Farmers Movement Archive

Battleground UP: After Adityanath’s ‘Abba jaan’ jibe, Rakesh Tikait calls Owasi ‘Chacha jaan’, ‘B team of BJP’

The battle for poll-bound Uttar Pradesh is getting murkier by the day. After the “Abba jaan” jibe by the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath now BKU leader Rakesh Tikait has called the AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi “Chacha jaan and a team of the BJP”.“Owaisi and the BJP are a team. He is BJP’s ‘Chacha jaan’ (uncle). He has the blessings of the BJP. He will abuse them, but they will not file a case against him. The BJP will take his help, farmers need to understand their moves,” Tikait warned.The BJP, whose CM landed the “Abba jaan” punch against closest rival Samajwadi Party a couple of days back, has been accusing Owaisi and BSP supremo Mayawati of doing “communal politics”. Mayawati is being accused of trying to divide Brahmins—a sizeable vote force, political influencers and traditional supporters of saffron party in the state, who are said to be upset with Adityanath for “targeting the community and favouring Thakurs”. However, observers say the move will also help the BJP.Also read: Omar Abdullah targets Yogi AdityanathCountry belongs to all, maintain restraint in comments: JD (U) on Adityanath’s ‘abba jaan’ remarksInterestingly, soon after Owasi stepped into UP’s political arena, he has been facing accusations from anti-BJP groupings that he is the “B-team” of the BJP who is trying to “divide Muslims” in order to dent “the traditional vote base” of SP.Urging Muslims in UP to “learn from West Bengal who did not get influenced by Owaisi”, they claimed that the AIMIM chief “is only contesting in UP so that the BJP can win”.This is not the first time the four-time Lok Sabha MP from Hyderabad has faced such allegations. He was “single-handedly” held responsible for the defeat of the Grand Alliance in Bihar in 2020 by the RJD. Terming him the “B-team of the BJP-RSS”, senior RJD leader Shivanand Tiwari said that “Owaisi fought at the behest of the BJP in order to defeat the Grand Alliance in Bihar” in “an election that could, otherwise, had the potential to change the politics of the country”.Right at the beginning of his political campaign, Owaisi said that he had come to UP “to defeat the BJP” and has been attacking SP for “cheating Muslims in the name of secularism”. “Our first effort is that our Muslim leadership should be developed in the biggest state of the country”, he was quoted as saying in Ayodhya while urging the community to not live “in the shadows”. “Nineteen percent (of voters) are Muslims and nine percent are Yadavs. But the CM will be yours (Yadavs) and we (Muslims) will not even get the job of a peon,” he said.Owaisi’s party is preparing to contest 100 of the 403 assembly seats in UP. The SP, which is relying on the Muslim-Yadav combination to reclaim the state, is currently the topmost challenger to the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP in UP. Observers say any dent in the traditional vote bank of the Samajwadi Party will only benefit the BJP.

The Tribune

2021-09-16

New Delhi