 "Azam Khan may join BSP: BJP on sinking ship remark")
Taking a jibe at Uttar Pradesh Minister Azam Khan for comparing his party to a "sinking ship", the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday said the former has through his statement warned Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and hinted at changing his path.
BJP leader I P Singh claimed that Khan has met Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati twice and that is which is why he has called the Samajwadi Party a "sinking ship".
"Through this statement, he has hinted his interest and warned Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav to improve else he will change his path," he told ANI.
In the wake of a number of leaders quitting the Samajwadi Party, Khan on Monday compared them to proverbial rats of the sinking ship.
"When rats feel that the ship might have developed a hole and is about to sink...Rats are the first to desert it... (Similarly) people who apprehend that they might be denied party tickets, they run away (from the party)," he said while replying to a question about some Samajwadi Party leaders and sitting legislators switching over to other parties.
Khan, however, later clarified his remarks and said that such leaders were leaving the party because they feared they would be denied tickets in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.