NEW DELHI: Two-time BJP MP from Delhi Manoj Tiwari said he "unwillingly" contested the 2009 Lok Sabha polls on a Samajwadi Party ticket against Yogi Adityanath, who he always considered as a man committed to his principles.
In an interaction with the PTI, Tiwari who is contesting the upcoming parliamentary elections a third time from the North East Delhi seat, said he never said a word against Yogi.
Tiwari, recalling his decision to contest against Yogi in 2009, said he was not in politics then and it was a different situation. Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan was a "factor" behind this, he said.
"I was doing a film alongside Amitabh Bachchan and met Amar Singh. I did contest the election even though unwillingly," he said.
Tiwari, a famous Bhojpuri singer-actor, said that the decision was made in a meeting in which Bachchan, Amar Singh and Anil Ambani were also present.
"I was just an artiste and the three were big people for me and they were asking me to fight the election. So I could not say no."
The former Delhi BJP president asserted he never said a word against Yogi.
"I believed even then that he was a person committed to his principles and doing justice to his robes of a religious figure," he said.
Tiwari said when he met Yogi during those days he "greeted him with Pranam because it was my Dharma."
Yogi, the present Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, won the 2009 election from Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat with more than two lakh votes and Tiwari was placed third in the contest behind the BSP candidate.
Tiwari, who joined the BJP ahead of Lok Sabha polls in 2014, asserted that the party was going to win all seven parliamentary seats in the national capital.
He is the sole sitting MP from Delhi fielded by the BJP for the upcoming fray.