U T Ifthikar rubbishes rumours of his joining BJP; says, UTK is his role model

Mangaluru, Apr 22: While speculations are afloat that U T Ifthikar Ali, the younger brother of U T Khader, the minister for food, civil supplies and consumer affairs, is set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party soon, the former himself dismissed such possibilities.

Rumours were doing rounds on social media that Ifthikar Ali, who is also a known educationist and senate member of Rajiv Gandhi University, is constantly in touch with Karnataka BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa and that the saffron party may field him in one of the constituencies in Bengaluru in the 2018 Assembly polls.

However, both U T Khader and Ifthikar Ali have rubbished the rumours as baseless and ill-intended. “No such talks have been held with any BJP leader. It’s all social media rumours… Have you heard anything in this regard from me?” he told coastaldigest.com.

Mr Ifthikar said that he considers his father late U T Fareed, who was a veteran Congress leader and four-time MLA of erstwhile Ullal constituency, and elder brother U T Khader as his role models, as both of them are known as “most people friendly politicians in Karnataka”.

“For me Congress is not just a party. It’s like my own family,” he added and urged the people not to spread baseless rumours about him.