Adilabad: Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) leader Akbaru-ddin Owaisi’s alleged hate speech in Nirmal in December 2012 and his subsequent arrest seems to have ended in ‘positive’ result for the MIM in municipal elections in Telangana.
Political analysts say that Mr Akbaruddin and Mr Asaduddin Owaisis’ arrests in different cases had created a sympathy wave among the Muslim voters in favour of the MIM in the municipal elections.
People voted for the MIM candidates in the municipal polls against the Muslim candidates of the Congress and the TRS in various wards in Adilabad, Nirmal and Bhainsa municipalities where the MIM won large number of wards.
Mr Akbaruddin was arrested in Hyderabad and was shifted to the Adilabad district jail where he was held for nearly one month. While in Adilabad jail, Mr Akbaruddin Owaisi used to be taken to court in Nizamabad where another case was filed against him for his hate speech.
Mr Asaduddin Owaisi was also arrested and jailed in connection with the Sangareddy case for assaulting a government officer during a demolition of mosque as part of road widening.
Farooq Ahmed, Adilabad town president of the MIM, said Muslims strongly believed that the state government had arrested Mr Akbaruddin and Mr Asaduddin to damage the MIM and its leadership and to suppress Muslim voice which provoked hatred among the Muslims against the Congress, the TD and the BJP and sympathy towards the MIM. Mr Farooq said, “Even the Muslims who were against the MIM voted for its candidates in view of the arrest of the MIM leader.”
Both Akbaruddin and Asaduddin had alleged that the Congress government, led by the then Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, had got them arrested only to harass them.
In his campaign speech in Adilabad during the municipal elections, Mr Akbaruddin said he will be indebted forever to the people of Adilabad for the support extended to him when he was in the district jail.
(Read: All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen scores historic ton in Andhra municipal polls)
He reiterated that they were jailed for fighting for Muslim rights and called upon all the Muslims to vote for the MIM to fight against communal forces.
Mr Asaduddin personally campaigned for municipal elections in Nirmal, Adilabad and Bhainsa municipalities and also in Bellampalli and Kagaznagar municipalities, spending two days for election campaign in Adilabad town.
It is said that the Muslims voters strengthened the hands of the MIM leadership as they perceived a threat if Narendra Modi become the Prime Minister. It seems, Mr Asadduddin’s efforts to woo the Dalits and backward communities has also paid dividends in terms of votes for the MIM candidates in the municipal elections.
