AMU alumnus and Rajya Sabha member Mohammed Adeeb on Wednesday urged Muslims to support Samajwadi Party in the ongoing UP Assembly election. He said small political outfit floated by self-claimed Muslim leaders like Peace Party are having motivated agenda to neutralise the importance of Muslims votes. Cautioning further, he added that vote for strong Congress if the party’s candidate has potential to defeat BSP and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was addressing mediapersons at his residence in New Delhi.

“I travelled to several districts in the State — Basti, Azamgarh, Barabanki, Faizabad and Sitapur recently and observed that SP is gaining massive support in this election. Small political parties have jumped into the fray to divide Muslim votes. These parties are backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party. Hence, I want to appeal to the community to support SP,” said Adeeb, who was jointly backed by the Congress and SP in Rajya Sabha election in 2008. He was elected unopposed.

Adeeb also appealed not to vote those Congress candidates who have joined the party recently. “Vote only for loyal and old Congress workers, if they have strength and possibility of winning. If they are leading and have fair chances of victory, then Muslims should vote for them. Muslims should not vote those candidates who came to the party with the motive to get elected,” he added.

Adeeb, also a member of Muslim Personal Law Board, said with the initial trend, it is evident that BSP has lost all its ground in the State. “People are fed up with Mayawati Government and want to get rid of it,” he said.

The MP said  he would be visiting western UP district in the next couple of days and would ask the Muslims voters to restrain from voting for small parties, BSP and BJP.