Bilal calls MIM communal party

Hyderabad: Former MIM corporator Mohd Khaja Bilal is all set to join the Congress officially at Gandhi Bhavan on Thursday. He made the announcement at a press meet on Wednesday.

He had been associated with the MIM for 17 years. “I am resigning as I do not consider the party to be working for Muslims. I worked with dedication and commitment for a long time. Still there is no development in the Old City and I blame the MIM leadership and its policies for it,” he said at the packed meet held on Wednesday.

He said the MIM followed a communal agenda which made him resign from it.
Mr Bilal faces 22 criminal cases and half of them were registered on a single day for the arson and violence during the controversy over the Bha-gyalakshmi temple at Charminar in 2012. “I was arrested six times and attempts are being made to invoke the PD Act against me,” he said.

A businessman from Rein Bazaar, he was elected corporator in 2009 from the same area and was a member of the GHMC standing committee.

There was a huge presence of policemen when Bilal made the announcement.  Bilal became the second former corporator of MIM to join the Congress after Mohd Ghouse a few months ago.