AAP rejects Bukhari's 'unsolicited' support (Roundup)

On the eve of Delhi assembly polls, Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari Friday appealed to Muslims to vote for the AAP. The AAP, however, rejected his "unsolicited" support and questioned its timing.

The BJP accused the Aam Aadmi Party of polarising Delhi on communal lines and questioned whether the party knew beforehand that Bukhari would issue such an appeal.

Delhi goes to the polls Saturday to elect a 70-member assembly. The votes will be counted Feb 10.

"The AAP seems to be in a position to form the government and we must give them strength and help in forming a secular government in Delhi," Bukhari said.

Snubbing Bukhari's offer, the AAP accused him of practising communal politics and said such elements seemed to be propped up by the BJP.

"Today, on the eve of Delhi polls, a man who represents regressive and the worst side of politics came out and gave support to the AAP," AAP leader Ashish Khetan told the media.

"We not only reject the offer made by Ahmed Bukhari but we also want to make it clear that the AAP is here to fight communal politics that Bukhari represents," he added.

Khetan said Bukhari's past utterances symbolised communalism. He added that when Bukhari annointed his son as the Jama Masjid's Naib Imam, he had invited the Pakistani prime minister but not the Indian prime minister.

In a statement later, the AAP said: "All attempts by such elements which seem to be propped up by the BJP want to vitiate the communal atmosphere in Delhi."

Reacting to Bukhari's remark, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Shahnawaz Hussain attacked the AAP saying it was trying to "divide" Delhi communally.

Union minister and BJP leader Nirmala Sitharaman said: "The AAP's politics is based on double standards. Did the AAP know that a fatwa was going to be issued?"

Muslims account for over 11 percent of Delhi's nearly 17 million population. In the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls in 2014, Bukhari called upon Muslims to vote for the Congress.

Imam's younger brother Yahya Bukhari said the chief cleric had never stuck to any particular party in the past. "He keeps vacillating which is not good for the nation as well as for the community," he told a TV news channel.