Asaduddin Owaisi hits back at Yogi Adityanth: 'I am number one citizen of India'

Continuing his attack on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanth over his "Nizam" barb at him, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday he is the “number one citizen of India”, and “not a tenant”. Owaisi was responding to Adityanath’s recent remark at rally in poll-bound Telangana where the AIMIM president will have run away from Hyderabad if the BJP wins the assembly elections, which will be held on December 7.

"If the BJP forms government in Telangana, I can tell you that Owaisi will have to run away just like Nizam was compelled to run away from Hyderabad. The BJP will give security to all but will not allow those who spread anarchy", Adityanath had said while addressing an election rally in Tandur town of Vikarabad district.

Hit the UP chief minister back, Owaisi said Adityanath is campaigning in Telangana at a time when there was a tension in Bulandshahr in the northern state.

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"I am number one citizen of India, an equal citizen and I am not a tenant. I am a partner here," Owaisi told a 'Meet the Press' programme organised by Press Club of Hyderabad adding that unlike Yogi, he is an Indian "by choice".

"We (Indian Muslims) rejected Jinnah's (two-nation) theory. We accepted India and we always accept that India is our homeland. You cannot treat us as second-class citizens. BJP's ideology is to treat Muslims as unequal citizens," Owaisi claimed.

Addressing a poll rally in Hyderabad, he had earlier alleged that Adityanath was speaking the language of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP and that he was ignorant about history.

"The law and order machinery is breaking. Good luck to him. I hope that the people of Uttar Pradesh will realise that what a callous, reckless and irresponsible chief minister they have got," he said.

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Hoping that Uttar Pradesh Police would also realise that the chief minister was not there to grieve with the families when one of their officers was shot dead, Owaisi said, "Adityanath is doing "election tourism".

On Monday, a police inspector, identified as Subodh Kumar Singh and a youth, Sumit Kumar, were killed as a mob protesting alleged illegal cow slaughter went on a rampage torching a police post and clashing with the police in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr.

(With PTI inputs)