Bukhari said he was not in favour of 4.5 per cent reservation for Muslims, as promised by the Congress, and there was no place for caste or forward-backward divide in Islam. Bukhari also said reservation for Muslims will be cut out from OBC quota and create a rift between the OBCs and Muslims.

Talking to The Sunday Express, Khan said that reservation for Muslims was a political issue. “Such political issues should be left to politicians,” he stressed, adding that “Maulvis and Pandits” should remain away from it.

Trying to downplay Bukhari’s association with SP, Khan said his press conference with Mulayam showed the Shahi Imam was appreciated the party’s manifesto. Khan said he “welcomed” such appreciation “by religious leaders”, but they should “restrict themselves to appreciation and appeals. It is not their prerogative to do more than that,” Khan said. He also said that Bukhari was supporting SP because “the (political) atmosphere is in favour of SP”.

Khan said the party, in its manifesto, had talked about discussing the matter with the Muslim intellectuals and law experts and come out with a quota percentage that is more than Muslim quota in any other state. “We still stand by this arrangement and will do whatever has been promised in the manifesto,” said Khan. He denied that such a quota will cause a rift between the OBCs and non OBCs, as claimed by Bukhari.

In December, Bukhari had written to Mulayam, putting forth several proposals, most of which of which were included in the SP manifesto. However, Khan denied Bukhari’s letter had any impact on the manifesto. “The manifesto was prepared a year ago by party leaders including me. Manifestos are not based on letters,” he said.