Owaisi now promises two CMs for UP, if his new front gets power

PTI, Jan 23, 2022, 9:29 AM IST

Source: ANI

Lucknow: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday launched a new pre-poll front, ‘Bhagidari Parivartan Morcha’, promising two chief ministers for Uttar Pradesh, if the new front is voted to power.

While launching the new outfit, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief also promised three deputy chief ministers for the state, saying his new front will fight the UP Assembly polls on all its 403 seats.

Out of the two CMs, one will belong to the backward classes and the other to the Dalit community, he said, adding the state will also have three Dy CMs, with one belonging to the Muslim community.

”If voted to power, the Morcha will give two chief ministers to the state. Of this one will be from the OBC community, while the other will be from the Dalit community. Apart from this, three deputy chief ministers will be made, of which one will be Muslim,” Owaisi said.

Owaisi did not explain under what provision of the Constitution the state will have two CMs.

A chief minister of a state is appointed under the provisions of articles 153 and 164 of the Constitution, with both the articles talking in terms of a single individual as the state’s CM.

Owaisi launched the new front jointly with little-known political outfit Jan Adhikaar Party of former Uttar Pradesh minister Babu Singh Kushwaha and an all-India body of government employees of the backward, Dalits and minority community, founded by Kanshi Ram in the 1970s.

The AIMIM chief announced the launch while addressing a press conference along with Kushwaha and current chairperson Waman Meshram of the all-India Backward and Minority Community Employees Federation (BAMCEF).

Former UP minister Kushwaha was made the convenor of the new front.

”The doors of the Morcha are open for other political parties,” said Kushwaha.

He also claimed that the UP assembly poll battle which is being perceived to be between the BJP and SP, is now between the Morcha and the BJP. Owaisi launched the new front after the collapse of the Om Prakash Rajbhar-led Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha to which both the AIMIM and Kushwaha’s party belonged.

But the Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha collapsed after Rajbhar, a former BJP ally, joined hands with the Samajwadi Party.

A Cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, Rajbhar had resigned before the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. He had later launched the Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha as a political front of smaller parties.

The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party had contested the 2017 assembly polls in alliance with the BJP and won four seats. Owaisi had earlier said his party would contest 100 seats in the upcoming assembly elections. He is currently engaged in the poll campaigning for his party’s prospective candidates, crisscrossing the state, particularly the Muslim-dominated areas, and exhorting them to develop their own leadership for their welfare.

Speaking on the occasion, Waman Meshram said the communities of the two other deputy chief ministers would be announced soon.

He said if voted to power, the Morcha will hold a caste census, and also provide for free and compulsory education for all.

Meshram is the national president of BAMCEF, a non-political and non-religious organization of employees.

BAMCEF is the All India Backward (SC, ST, OBC) and Minority Communities Employees Federation and was founded by BSP founders Kanshi Ram and D K Khaparde.

Kushwaha was one of Mayawati’s most trusted aides and a senior member of the UP Cabinet. Currently, he is the chairman of the Jan Adhikar Party. He had also joined the BJP and later formed the Jan Adhikar Party.