Asaduddin Owaisi had said on Sunday that India is his father's country. (File)
The president of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday lashed out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath again over his "Nizam" barb at him, saying Indian Muslims had rejected Muhammad Ali Jinnah's two-nation theory and he is a citizen of this country "by choice".
The Member of Parliament from Hyderabad was responding to Yogi Adityanath's recent remarks at a rally in poll-bound Telangana that Owaisi would have to "run away" from Hyderabad, just like the Nizam, if the BJP came to power in the state.
"I am number one citizen of India, an equal citizen and I am not a tenant," Mr Owaisi told reporters at Hyderabad Press Club.
Unlike Yogi, he said, he is an Indian "by choice".
"We (Indian Muslims) rejected Jinnah's theory. We always accept that India is our homeland. You cannot treat us as second-class citizens. The BJP's ideology is to treat Muslims not as equal citizens but as unequal citizens," the AIMIM chief said.
In an attack on Adityanath on Sunday, Mr Owaisi had said India is his father's country and no one is running away.
Addressing a poll rally here, he had also said Adityanath was speaking the language of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP and that he was ignorant about history.