Claiming to be the "fittest" person to become the prime minister, senior Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan on Tuesday said that he aspires to take up the top job and that "if Narendra Modi resigns and all members of Parliament elect me the PM it will send a good message across the country and India will progress with each passing day".
Khan claimed that even his Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav will support his candidature for the prime minister's post. "When the time comes, Mulayam Singh will propose my name," he said.
When reporters asked Khan about posters being put up in Lucknow demanding his elevation to the post of deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, he said, "You are insulting me. I want to be become the prime minister and I deserve to hold the post. That's why I have removed posters of me becoming deputy chief minister."
Reminded that UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had recently floated the idea of Mulayam as prime minister and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi as the deputy prime minister at an event in Delhi, Khan said, "I'm the fittest person to become the prime minister of the country and I aspire to be the prime minister."
On the Central Bureau of Investigation raids at the office of Rajinder Kumar, the principal secretary of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Khan said, "The Central government and the Bharatiya Janata Party have shown disrespect to political beliefs... Everyone knows that it's a biased action... I think there should not be raids at office of any chief minister of the country without prior permission."
