Hyderabad: The AIMIM on Friday announced that it would be contesting nine constituencies, including Rajendranagar and Jubilee Hills, from where the Congress has fielded former cricketer Mohd Azharuddin, even as it dropped two legislators and switched seats for two others.
The party president, Asaduddin Owaisi, said Akbaruddin Owaisi, his brother and the party’s floor leader in the Assembly will contest from Chandrayangutta.
The party has replaced Charminar MLA Mumtaz Ahmed Khan with Mir Zulfiqar Ali, former mayor, and Yakutpura MLA Ahmed Pasha Quadri with Jaffar Hussain
Meraj has been asked to switch from Nampally which he won in 2018.
The Nampally ticket, Asaduddin Owaisi said, was being given to Mohd Majid Hussain, another former mayor, while Ahmed bin Abdullah Balala and Kausar Mohiuddin will again contest Malakpet and Karwan.
The MIM chief said the party will announce its candidates for Bahadurpura, Rajendranagar and Jubilee Hills later.
He said AIMIM contested eight seats in 2018 and won seven; he hoped the party would win all nine it would contest on November 30.
“The AIMIM works for the people and our office is open six days a week,” he said. “Wherever Majlis is contesting from, we call on people to vote for our candidates. And in the rest of the seats, we want people to vote for ‘mamu’ (uncle),” he said, referring to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.
The AIMIM president continued his attack on the Congress and the BJP calling them two different faces of Hindutva. “While the Congress does this with a smile and in English, the BJP is more direct. Both parties are part of what happened at Babri Masjid, the Congress was in power, and the BJP and the RSS were on the ground,” he said.
Owaisi added that Madhya Pradesh Congress leader Kamalnath’s comment that Rajiv Gandhi had opened the locks of the Babri Masjid was a historical fact, and proves that Congress was responsible for the demolition of the mosque as was the BJP.
“We hope that Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he goes to Ayodhya in January for the function, will take Rahul Gandhi with him. Yeh Ram aur Shyam ki jodi achcha rahega,” he said.
He said in Telangana the situation is different as there is a third force at play in the form of the BRS. The mosque in the old Secretariat complex was demolished but Chandrashekar Rao had a new one built. “BRS is the third force and it keeps Hindutva brigades away and people should vote for it,” he said.
Owaisi further said Rahul Gandhi should know the history of his party before levelling allegations on the MIM and himself that they take money to contest elections. It was always the Congress that sought the MIM’s help, he added.
