All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday targeted the JMM/Congress alliance government and BJP for communal violence in Ranchi. Owaisi, the Hyderabad MP who was in State Capital on Sunday to support Independent candidate Deo Kumar Dhan in Mandar by-poll said that communal incidents across the country including Ranchi have occurred due to wrong policies of NDA government.
He said, “Had the NDA government taken action against suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma immediately such communal flare up would have been controlled. Also in Ranchi, the JMM/Congress government is responsible for the death of Muddashir and Shahil. He said that the State Government should seek apology from the family members of Muddashir and Shahil who were killed in police firing.”
At Birsa Munda International Airport he said that he was here to meet the families that had lost their children in the violence of June 10. However, the state government did not allow him to meet the families.
On the issue of the Agnipath scheme too, Owasi attacked the Centre. Owaisi claimed the BJP-led government at the Centre was playing with the future of the youths by bringing in the Agnipath recruitment scheme.
"At a time when China's soldiers are on our land and Pakistan is still a threat, there are one lakh vacancies in our armed forces. And the government is trying to fill merely 45,000 vacancies through the Agnipath scheme, that too for only four years," he said.
"What will they learn in four years? There is no dearness allowance, medical allowance and insurance. The government intends to play with the future of the youths," he added.
Meanwhile, sources said that slogans of Pakistan Zindabad too were raised at the Airport when Owasi reached. As soon as the party supremo Owaisi came out of the airport, the workers welcomed him with flowers. In the meantime, slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ were also raised.
At the Chanho block of Mandar assembly segment too, Owasi raised the similar issue addressing public meetings in support of independent candidate Deo Kumar Dhan. Mandar is likely to witness a triangular contest as apart from Dhan, two other prominent candidates are BJP’s Gangotri Kujur and Shilpi Neha Tirkey from Congress.
Owaisi’s support for Dhan is going to make the election interesting as there is a maximum possibility of the Muslim population supporting Dhan. If this happens, it will be a loss for Shilpi, daughter of Bandhu Tirkey, who lost his status as a legislator after being convicted in a case for possessing disproportionate assets.
In the 2019 main assembly election, Bandhu Tirkey of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) won the seat by defeating Deo Kumar Dhan of Bharatiya Janata Party with a margin of 23,127 votes.
Tirkey had got 92,491 votes while Dhan could only manage 69,364 votes. In that election, Shishir Lakra of AIMIM got 23,592 votes and stood third followed by Hemlata Oraon of AJSU (P) who got 15,708 votes and Sunny Toppo of Indian National Congress got 8,840 votes.
Kujur had won the 2014 election. She had got 54,200 votes while the runner up Bandhu Tirkey had got 46,595 votes. Dhan, who had contested as an independent candidate at that time had got 38,801 and emerged third.
Caption: Owasi-3: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party Chief Asaduddin Owaisi addresses an election campaign in support of his party candidate Deo Kumar Dhan at Mandar constituency on Sunday.