Miffed Bukhari warms up to RLD

“We have met and discussed several things. But nothing has been finalised. We have to take into account several issues,including the winnability factor in the Lok Sabha elections,” Bukhari said. Sources in RLD said that former minister Haji Yaqoob Qureshi,who is presently in RLD,is acting as the facilitator between Bukhari and the RLD.

Once a deal is sealed,the RLD is likely to organise meetings of Bukhari in western UP. The party is eyeing a possible Jat-Muslim combination for the Lok Sabha elections. Muslims are present in good numbers in several districts of western UP. Bukhari’s meetings will concentrate on “exposing” Mulayam’s failure to fulfil his commitments and the failure of the Akhilesh Yadav’s government to protect the rights of Muslims.

“Already 27 riots have occurred during one year of Akhilesh. Muslims are living under constant fear and threat of life. Mulayam has to answer all these questions,” Bukhari said.

Bukhari,who had issued an appeal to Muslims to support the Samajwadi Party during the Assembly election last year,is unhappy with Mulayam. Though he managed to secure an MLC’s seat for his son-in-law Umar Khan,Akhilesh removed his close aide Waseem Ahmed Khan from the post of chairman of the UP Pollution Control Board.

Presently,Bukhari is campaigning against Mulayam. He even held a rally on April 21 at Etawah which attracted a few thousand Muslims,where Bukhari gave a call for snatching power from Mulayam. Bukhari is also visiting several districts and contacting Muslims on his own.

“I had placed several issues before Mulayam before elections. When he agreed,I appealed to Muslims to vote in his favour. Sadly,he has failed to fulfil the commitments. Thus I had to take a stand,” Bukhari said.

Among the let-downs,he mentioned proper representation of Muslims,reservation in government jobs,release of innocent Muslim youths implicated in fake cases,all of which were promised by the Samajwadi Party.

“For one year I kept insisting on these promises,but nothing much has been done. In fact,Muslims were fooled by false assurances. They were killed in more than two dozen riots in the past year,” Bukhari said.