All India Majlis e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi hit out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her allegation that the Bharatiya Janata Party was spending crores of rupees to bring AIMIM to the state to sharpen the communal polarisation and divide the Hindu-Muslim votes among themselves.
Owaisi dismissed the charge as “baseless”.
“Never was a man born who can buy Asaduddin Owaisi with money. Her allegation is baseless and she is restless. She should worry about her own home as so many of her people are going to the BJP. She has insulted the voters of Bihar and the people who voted for us.” Owaisi said here on Wednesday.
Mamata Banerjee made the allegation against Owaisi while addressing a political rally in the poll-bound state on Wednesday.
“We have not started preparations for the West Bengal polls yet the TMC (Trinamool Congress) is trying to defame us after the Bihar polls. We have never compromised with the BJP. But the TMC leader was with the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government and she was a union minister. Besides, the TMC has never criticised the BJP on its role in the Gujarat riots,” Owaisi said, adding that this showed how much soft corner Mamata Banerjee had for the BJP.
Talking to media persons here during his day-long visit to Lucknow on Wednesday to meet leaders of some smaller parties, including Om Prakash Rajbhar of Suheldeo Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP), Owaisi said the TMC was trying to give space to the BJP in West Bengal and this was witnessed during the last Lok Sabha polls in 2019 when the BJP won 18 seats in West Bengal.
“When two political leaders meet, you can guess what the topic of talks will be. I am meeting Om Prakash Rajbhar and will also meet Shivpal Singh Yadav who heads the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia),” Owasi said.
Asked about the AIMIM victory in Bihar, Owaisi said that leaders like Om Prakash Rajbhar and others helped him win seats in Bihar.
About Uttar Pradesh, Owaisi said that he would make more visits to the state in January and things would begin to formalise later. “We have just started on this journey,” he said.
Reacting to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s suggestion to change the name of Hyderabad to Bhagyanagar, Owaisi said, “I will not change any name in Uttar Pradesh.”
“So far you have only dealt with obedient Mir Jaffers and Sadiqs. You don’t like Muslims who think and speak for themselves. You’ve insulted our voters in Bihar. Remember what happened to parties in Bihar that kept blaming their failures on ‘vote cutters. Muslim voters aren’t your jagir,” Owaisi said.
Reacting sharply to the charges made against him by the opposition of being a B team of the BJP, Owaisi said, “AIMIM has always stopped the BJP’s inroad everywhere, whether it is Bihar or Hyderabad.”
“In Bihar we won five seats after contesting on 20 seats but in the remaining 15 seats where we lost, we did not get a chunk of votes that the opposition can blame us for their defeat against the NDA. Similarly, in the Hyderabad municipal polls, the BJP lost the seats where Yogi Adityanath and Amit Shah campaigned, which shows how we played our cards against these forces,” he added.
The AIMIM won five seats in Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region of Bihar bordering West Bengal.