Party won’t field any candidate, says Maulana Tauqeer Raza
After splitting from the Samajwadi Party (SP), ‘Ittehad Muslimeen Council’ (IMC) chief and Barelvi cleric Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan said that his party will extend support to strong candidates or political parties against the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in lok Sabha Elections.
“Several teams have been formed to survey all the 80 parliamentary seats of the State to find out strong candidates or political parties against the BJP. The teams will submit reports on Tuesday and announcement of either supporting candidates or political parties would be made only after that,” Tauqeer Raza told The Pioneer.
The cleric also heads IMC, which grabbed one seat in Assembly Election 2012. But in the lok Sabha Elections his party will not field any candidate. “Yes! IMC will not be contesting lok Sabha Election from the State as we will use all our might in supporting the candidates who could defeat the BJP,” he confirmed.
Recent announcement made by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati of not going in alliance with the BJP or the NDA had somewhere attracted the attention of Muslim vote bank in the State. Cleric revealed that they had also conducted an online survey to find out strongest political party against the BJP. In which he found the BSP as one of the political party which could defeat the BJP in the State. “But it cannot help in making final decision as after clubbing field and online survey, announcement would be made,” he added.
His closeness with AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal cannot be ruled out especially now when Kejriwal is likely to contest election against Narendra Modi, the cleric could extend support in Varanasi to the AAP. “If Kejriwal will make announcement to contest election from Varanasi then we could announce to support him in Varanasi. Kejriwal has secular thinking and I respect it,” shared Raza.
It is more likely that the cleric could make announcement on Wednesday that he will support strong candidates against BJP irrespective of which had fielded them or just political party.