SP muslim leader says he is BJP's ''item girl''

Firebrand Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan on Wednesday said that he was the ''item girl'' for the BJP and the saffron party often used his name to gain political mileage during the elections.

''BJP often uses my name during elections to polarise the voters.....I am like its item girl,'' Khan said while addressing a gathering of Muslims in Uttar Pradesh's Badayun district, about 300 kilometres from Lucknow.

He said that he expected the same thing in the next Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

Khan decried the saffron leaders for speaking on the Ram Temple issue despite the fact that the matter was pending in the Supreme Court. ''Everyone should wait for the verdict of the apex court,'' he added.

Khan, however, said that there were some forces, who did not want to wait for the apex court's verdict and construct the Ram Temple on the disputed land. ''These were the same forces, who had demolished the Babri Masjid in 1992,'' he added.

The SP leader also lashed out at BJP leaders for terming Muslims as the ''children'' of Babar, the first Mughal emperor. ''The Muslims, who chose to stay in the country after the partition in 1947, consider India as their motherland...it is not correct to doubt their integrity and patriotism,'' he said.

Khan said that there would be a grand alliance of the minorities, SCs and backwards in the next polls to counter the BJP.