AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi warned Congress party that it cannot beat BJP alone. Referring to Congress debacle in Haryana polls, he said that if the Congress wanted to succeed it should take every party on board to fight against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Addressing a public meeting at Vikarabad in Telangana,he recalled secular parties used to blame him for causing a split in anti-BJP votes in elections. But, he wondered how the Mallikarjun Kharge-led party lost in the northern state though the AIMIM did not field candidates in Haryana.
“How did they (BJP) win (Haryana)? I was not there. Otherwise, they would have said ‘B Team’…They lost there. Now, you tell me, they lost because of whom?,” he said, addressing a public meeting at Vikarabad. “I would like to tell you about the old party. Understand what I am saying. You have to take everyone along to defeat Modi (BJP)wYou will not be able to do anything alone,” he said.
It may be recalled that Congress has been blaming AIMIM for its defeat in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra alleging that by fielding a large number of candidates in the elections AIMIM has been dividing Muslim votes, so indirectly helping BJP to win more seats due to divided opposition. Pointing out that Congress was defeated in Haryana even without AIMIM in the field, he ridiculed claims of the main opposition party.
Lashing out at the Centre over the Waqf Bill, Owaisi claimed that mosques and dargahs would be snatched away if the waqf bill becomes a legislation. “I am telling Modi, if this waqf law is made, social instability would be created in the country. We will take the country to the 1980s and 1990s. We lost one mosque. We will not lose any mosque or graveyard now,” he said.
Continuing his support for the Palestine cause, Owaisi asked why PM Modi is not speaking though “Israel attacked UN army” in Lebanon and 40,000 were killed in Gaza. He also asked why India was giving weapons to Israel.