Owaisi calls for Congress unity to oppose the ruling government ahead of the Maharashtra elections

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi speaking to the media. File. , Photo: ANI

Hyderabad Parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi has called for discussions with the Congress party to boost opposition efforts ahead of the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections. He pointed out that the grand “old party” will have to pull everyone together to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Addressing a public meeting in Vikarabad on Friday (October 11, 2024) evening, Mr. Owaisi criticized the Congress for recent performance of Haryana electionsquestioning how the party lost even though AIMIM did not contest in that state. He urged the Congress to engage in discussions, stressing that unity was essential for an effective challenge to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

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“If the old party [Congress] wants to defeat Modi, they will have to take everyone with them. They cannot do it alone,” Mr. Owaisi, adding that former AIMIM parliamentarian Imtiaz Jalil has already sought a dialogue between the two parties in Maharashtra. He said that in other circumstances, AIMIM would have been wrongly called the BJP’s B-team in Haryana if it had participated.

“We also do not want a Shinde-Fadnavis-Ajit Pawar government. But you have to discuss with us. Otherwise, I also have to manage my party. We have two MLAs in Maharashtra — Mufti Ismail in Malegaon and Farooq Shah in Dhulia,” he added, confirming AIMIM’s significant presence in the state, including elected corporators.

In addition to discussing the need for unity, Mr. Owaisi issued a stark warning about the waqf billclaiming that this could lead to social instability across India. In a message aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said the enactment of the law would take the country back to the turbulent decades of the 1980s and 1990s.

“I am telling PM Modi that if this Waqf Act becomes a reality, there will be social instability. We have already lost one mosque, Modi, and we will not lose another mosque or graveyard,” Mr. Owaisi said. He said, for example, if someone wanted to demolish the Shivareddypet mosque in Telangana, it would be met with resistance from both the young and the old, and said they would not “wear bangles and stand idle”.