ADILABAD: The arrest of AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi and his subsequently sending him to jail for a month is still haunting the Congress and affecting its prospects in Telangana.
It may be recollected that in 2013. during the Congress rule, Mr Akbaruddin Owaisi was arrested and sent to jail for his controversial speech allegedly abusing Hindu Gods at an party meeting in Nirmal. It was after this incident that the MIM distanced itself from the Congress and began supporting the TRS.
Till the late Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy was the Chief Minister, the MIM was quite close to the Congress. The implementation of 4 per cent reservations by Rajasekhar Reddy helped the minorities a lot. However, the MIM MLA’s arrest was humiliating for the party and its leadership developed a grudge against the then Congress Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.
Interestingly, the MIM which had been against the creation of a separate Telangana and had proposed ‘Rayala Telangana’ before the Sri Krishna Committee, began moving closer to the TRS and eventually began supporting it outright.
In the last municipal elections, Mr Akbaruddin Owaisi citied his arrest and this helped the TRS in winning the chairman posts where the Muslim population was strong.
This election, minorities played a vital role in deciding the TRS candidates’ victory in many constituencies.
On November 19, 2018, MIM party president Asaduddin Owaisi recalled at a party election campaign in Nirmal in support of TRS candidate Allola Indrakaran Reddy that they have not forgotten the humility they faced at the hands of Congress (referring to Akbaruddin Owaisi’s arrest ). Nirmal is the same constituency from where his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi made the alleged remarks against Hindu Gods in December, 2012.
Mr Asaduddin Owaisi began his counter-campaign against the Congress from Nirmal town. He alleged that local Congress candidate had offered Rs 25 lakh to his party leader to stop him from attending the meeting in Nirmal and also announced that he had an audio recording of the ‘conversation’.
Just before the Congress public meeting in Medchal that was attended by the Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, the audio conversation went viral. MIM leaders openly supported the TRS candidates contesting from constituencies where the Muslim population is considerable.
Local MIM leaders worked in ‘understanding’ with the TRS candidates and this was visible in Adilabad, Nirmal and Mudhole and Karimnagar.
