AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi responded to a shocking comment from a Karnataka minister (file)
Hyderabad:
A day after a Karnataka minister said that the BJP would “definitely not give tickets (to contest the elections) to Muslims,” AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi responded, calling the comment “disgusting and shameful, but not surprising”. He said that such an ideology was incompatible with the Constitution.
“It is disgusting and shameful, but not surprising. Hindutva believes that only one community has the right to political power and all the others are subordinate. This ideology cannot coexist with our Constitution, which speaks of freedom, brotherhood, equality and justice,” he said Owaisi. he tweeted Monday afternoon.
Earlier, KS Eshwarappa, Karnataka’s Minister of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, said that the BJP would give tickets to Hindus but not Muslims.
Owaisi has found himself and his party in the crosshairs in recent days in the run-up to the Hyderabad municipal elections on Tuesday. Essentially a race for mayor, it has become a high-stakes battleground for the BJP, who called on the big boys to help him in his campaign.
On Sunday, the last day of the campaign, Interior Minister Amit Shah went on tour and said the BJP would “rid Hyderabad of the Nawab-Nizam culture.” Yogi Adityanath, in the Old City, widely regarded as a stronghold of Owaisi, said the BJP would change the city’s name as Bhagyanagar.
Karnataka MP Tejasvi Surya and Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay have referred to Owaisi as “Jinnah” and threatened a “surgical strike to eliminate the Rohingya and Pakistanis.”
The BJP, which claims an “unholy alliance” between the ruling TRS and AIMIM, has also accused them of counting on votes from “Rohingya and Pakistani infiltrators.”
However, Mr. Owaisi has not received these crossed arms blows.
On Saturday, at a public rally of his own, he mocked the BJP for deploying such important figures for local elections. “Now there is only Donald Trump left to campaign …”, he said.
Fueled by its victory in an Assembly vote for Dubbaka’s seat earlier this month, the BJP has targeted this election as an opportunity to carve out a spot in the southern state.
In 2016, the party claimed only four of 150 seats, while Telangana Prime Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s TRS swept 99. A solid result in Hyderabad will now help to press its case in Tamil Nadu, where the elections to the Assembly should be held early next year.
Results for the 150 districts will be released on December 4.
With contributions from ANI
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