I am a 'sevak', not a 'pilot': BJP candidate Yoonus Khan's poll pitch in Tonk

I am a 'sevak', not a 'pilot' -- This is how the BJP candidate Yoonus Khan is pitching himself in his electoral fight against Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot for Tonk seat in the state assembly polls.

Khan, Transport and PWD Minister in the Vasundhara Raje government, has been fielded by the BJP in the Muslim-dominated Tonk assembly constituency, replacing the party's sitting MLA Ajit Singh Mehta after the Congress gave ticket to Pilot here.

Talking to PTI while campaigning in the rural areas of Tonk, Khan said the decision to field him was based on strategy and equations and not on his religion.

"Don't weigh this as a Hindu-Muslim fight because if you look at it from that perspective, Muslims are lesser in number in comparison to Hindus. This election is not about caste and religion," said Khan, who is widely considered as one of the most powerful ministers in the Raje government.

Asked about being the lone Muslim candidate of the BJP and if his nomination marked a departure from the party's strategy to not field any candidates from the minority community, he said: "I don't know about elsewhere, but in Rajasthan, Yoonus Khan and (late BJP leader) Ramzan Khan have been fighting polls since the 80s."
Pitching himself as an underdog in the high-stakes electoral battle, Khan took a swipe at his Congress rival and said, "He (Pilot) has come for the first time, I have been a minister for long...I know the workers here."
In another jibe at the Rajasthan Congress chief's surname, Khan asked the crowd: "Do you have an aeroplane. Do you have a helicopter?... No, then you don't need a pilot."
Talking to PTI, he acknowledged both he and Pilot were outsiders in Tonk, but there was one difference -- "through the power that I had in my pen (as a minister), I have given roads worth Rs 2,000 crore."