Hyderabad: Congress, TRS woo MIM; Owaisi brothers weigh options

Hyderabad: The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen is all set to enter into an alliance with either Congress or the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.

While state Congress President Botsa Satyanarayana reportedly called on MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday to discuss a possible alliance, TRS leader K Tarakarama Rao (KTR) is reportedly in touch with Akbaruddin Owaisi. However, both the Owaisi brothers did not commit anything to either to the Congress or TRS on the issue of alliance and said they would get back after consulting other leaders in the party.

Meanwhile, the Owaisi brothers had an hour-long closed-door meeting on Thursday afternoon at MIM headquarters Darulsalaam and are believed to have discussed the alliance offer made by the Congress and TRS. After the meeting, Asaduddin Owaisi told the media he would speak to them on Friday again.

The MIM ended its alliance with the Congress about two years ago over the issue of the Bhagyalakshmi Temple adjacent to Charminar. The party had launched a full-scale attack against then chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and also the Congress party. Their relations strained further after Akbaruddin Owaisi was arrested in the alleged hate speech case. This prompted the MIM chief to make thousands of people take an oath during "Milad-un-Nabi meeting" that they would never vote for the Congress party again. However, in view of changing political equations after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, the MIM leadership might change its stand towards the Congress party.

On the other hand, although KTR has been making efforts to ally with the MIM, a majority of TRS leaders are reportedly against the move as the MIM had opposed the formation of Telangana. But KTR is trying to convince them that MIM legislators supported the Telangana Bill in Assembly and later in Lok Sabha.