Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait has lashed out at AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi over his decision to contest Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Tikat, who is spearheading farmers' agitation against the Modi government at Delhi borders, sought claim that Owaisi is hand in glove with the BJP and called him the saffron party's "chacha jaan".
"BJP's chacha jaan, Asaduddin Owaisi has entered Uttar Pradesh. If he (Owaisi) will abuse them (BJP), they will not file any case against him. They are a team," Tikait said addressing a public gathering in Baghpat.
Referring to AIMIM offering a ticket to mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, Tikait said, "Is Pragya Thakur (BJP MP from Bhopal) sacrosanct?"
Owaisi was in Uttar Pradesh last week to launch the party’s campaign for the next year's Assembly elections.
Tikait has been vocal against BJP over farmers' issues. He is making appeals to farmers to vote against BJP in the upcoming Assembly polls. At a mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar earlier this month, Tikait had even called Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders "rioters" and said the party should be given a drubbing in the Uttar Pradesh polls.
Notably, Tikait had contested the 2007 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh from the Khatauli seat as a candidate of the Bahujan Kisan Dal (BKD) party. His candidature was backed by Congress. He, however, was relegated at the sixth spot.
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