BJP asks Akhilesh to rein in minister Azam Khan

Lucknow: The state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday sought action against Urban Development Minister Mohd. Azam Khan and warned Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav of serious consequences if he failed to rein in his minister.

Angry at Khan's statement that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a murderer, state spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said more than Khan's utterances, the silence of Akhilesh Yadav on the matter was disturbing.

"During the Lok Sabha election, Azam Khan hurled the choicest of abuses at Modi but now that he is a democratically elected prime minister of the country, this lumpen behaviour of a cabinet minister cannot be tolerated," Pathak said while adding that the state BJP would launch an agitation against the minister if appropriate action was not taken against him.

The BJP has also taken offence to Khan calling UP Governor Ram Naik a "pujari" (priest).

Khan had issued a statement during the weekend saying that the UP governor was behaving more like a "priest from Ayodhya than a governor".

The BJP leader said that before such uttering such remarks, Azam Khan should keep in mind that he was not only abusing a person holding a constitutional post but also one who was his appointing authority as the state's governor.

The BJP has alleged that the slogan 'Sabka Saath, Sabkaa Vikaas' of Narendra Modi had unnerved many leaders who were hitherto at the forefront of communal politics.

"Azam Khan is one such leader who feels threatened by the inclusive development plans of Modi and hence seems hell bent on abusing the prime minister and the governor in his blind pursuit of vote bank politics," the spokesman told IANS.

He added that properiety demanded that the chief minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav tick off the minister.

Mohd. Azam Khan is one of the most controversial minister in the UP cabinet. Recently, irked at the media posing questions concerning the lavishness of the birthday celebrations he had rolled out for the SP chief in Rampur, Khan had told on camera that the funds for the birthday had come from "Taliban, Laskar and Dawood Ibrahim".