Congress seeks Election Commission action on MIM over bribe call

Hyderabad: Former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir demanded that the State Election Commission (SEC)  take suo motu action against MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi for telling voters that they can take money from the Congress but vote for the MIM in the municipal elections.

Mr Shabbir Ali, in a media statement on Tuesday, alleged that Mr Owaisi was provoking the voters to ask for money. Being the head of a political party, Mr Owaisi should advise people against such a pratice, he said.

“Everyone in state knows it is TRS and MIM who pay money to buy votes. KCR also shops for Opposition MLAs. People also know your price is more than Rs 2,000. That’s why your assets have increased from Rs 39.02 lakh in 2004 to Rs 13 crore in 2019 (as per the ECI affidavit),” Mr Shabbir Ali said.

Mr Ali said that the culture of buying votes was started and is still being practiced by the TRS and the MIM. Both the parties have no respect for voters and they fix a price for each vote. Everyone in Telangana knows how TRS and MIM lure voters to get their votes and forget them after winning the polls. They openly misuse the official machinery and there were allegations of cash transported by TRS leaders in Police vehicles in Huzurnagar by-elections. Congress never indulged in such practices as it believes in free and fair elections, he said.

The Congress leader said Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has repeatedly insulted the Constitution and violated democratic norms by engineering defections of more than 50 MLAs, MLCs, MPs and other elected representatives. He asked why Mr Owaisi was silent when Mr Talasani Srinivas Yadav, who was elected on a TD ticket, was inducted in Mr Rao’s Cabinet in its first term. He did not raise his voice when none of the disqualification petitions filed against MLAs and MLCs who defected to TRS were even heard. Does he justify the defection of 12 MLAs who were elected on Congress tickets to the TRS only to deprive the Congress of the status of the main Opposition in the Assembly, he asked.

Mr Shabbir Ali said before levelling baseless allegations against the Congress , Mr Owaisi should do a serious introspection of his stand. He said while accusing Congress leaders of possessing huge wealth, he must also clarify whether that wealth was ill-gotten. Before accusing others of accumulating wealth, Mr Owaisi must clarify how his wealth multiplied manifold from Rs. 39 lakh in 2004 to Rs. 13 crores in 2019. While the voters of Hyderabad remained poor and backward. Can he explain how he accumulated so much of wealth, he asked.