Happy PM Modi spoke about me: SP-BSP-RLD candidate

MEERUT: Haji Yaqoob Qureshi, the SP-BSP-RLD alliance candidate from Meerut, brushed aside PM Modi’s comments against him alleging he was a sympathiser of terrorists since he had offered a bounty of Rs 51 crore in 2015 for the head of the Danish cartoonist who caricatured the Prophet. “I am happy PM spoke about me in Meerut today,” Qureshi told ET in Peeplikheda village, hours after the PM spoke in Meerut on Thursday. “The fact is: taees mayi, BJP gayi (Come 23rd May and the BJP will lose). We will remove Modi and make (BSP chief) Mayawati the PM. If the alliance wins 70-plus seats in UP, no one can stop Mayawati from becoming the PM.”

Addressing a crowd, he said the BJP had “tortured Dalits, Muslims and backwards who must ensure their votes don’t get split this time” and claimed that the BJP’s excesses surpassed those of the British. “I was a minister earlier and my doors will be open to you till 2 in the night,” said the meat-trader-turned politician, who has been a member of the BSP as well as RLD.

Flanked by SP and RLD leaders during campaigning, Qureshi exuded confidence that he will pose a stiff challenge to the BJP’s Rajendra Agrawal, who has been an MP for the past 10 years. The Congress has also fielded an Agrawal candidate.


A big demand in Meerut is the setting up of a bench of the high court for western UP. A posse of lawyers gate-crashed into the PM’s rally on Thursday raising this demand and were arrested. Sugarcane dues are also a burning issue in Meerut, where the PM gave an assurance that every paisa of farmers will be paid. BJP members said the PM’s rally will bolster Agrawal’s chances and Meerut’s people will never vote for a “strongman” like Qureshi since they are happy with the hard time the Adityanath government has given to criminals.