Speaking at the BSP Baichara Sammelan, for the minority community, in Muslim-majority Khadra locality of Lucknow North assembly segment, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) general secretary and the party’s Muslim face Naseemuddin Siddiqui claimed that the Samajwadi Party had been using Muslims like the way ‘tejpatta'(spice) is used in biryani, only for the aroma and removed after making. The BSP general secretary said that the Samajwadi party had not kept its election promises to provide Muslim reservations in proportion to their population and the release of Muslim youths in terror cases before 2012.
The Indian Express quoted Naseemuddin Siddiqui saying, “Muslims have been voting for the SP for last 25 years. Our women are very good at cooking. They will know that when biryani is cooked, tejpatta is used to give it aroma and taste. But once it is brought to be served, you remove the tejpatta first because it has served its purpose. Similarly the SP uses Muslims for aroma at the time of elections but once the polls are over, it abandons them.”
Stating that the dalits and Muslims play a vital role in the state’s politics, Siddiqui said that the minorities are been ‘beaten up’in the name of cow or beef protection in the state.
The BSP leader also claimed that there had been 400 communal riots during the Samajwadi party rule and stated that such incidents are mostly orchestrated. Siddiqui further claimed that there had been no riots during the rule of BSP in the state.
