Hyderabad: The BRS and its “friendly party” MIM will step up combined efforts to prevent the Congress from consolidating the minority vote around itself. If need be, the MIM is not averse to contesting as many seats as possible, deviating from the tradition of focusing on seven or eight segments in the Old City.
To begin with, both the parties have targeted PCC chief A. Revanth Reddy whom they have described as a “BJP agent” and a “Muslim hater” as part of the combined strategy chalked out by top leadership of the two parties. Sources told Deccan Chronicle that BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao and MIM supremo Asaduddin Owaisi recently held discussions along with finance minister T. Harish Rao and MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi on the combined strategy.
Accordingly, a day after Rama Rao alleged that Revanth Reddy would join the BJP along with 10 or so Congress legislators after the elections, Owaisi made the far more serious allegation that the TPCC chief’s “mind and heart were filled with hatred towards Muslims.” He found fault with the Congress leadership for choosing Revanth Reddy — “who speaks the language of the RSS” — as its leader.
Reacting to Revanth Reddy’s comments that Owaisi’s ancestors had migrated from Maharashtra, the Hyderabad MP said the TPCC chief was propagating the RSS ideology that says Islam does not belong to India but was imported.
“The TPCC chief says our khandaan is from Maharashtra. I say we descendants of Baba Adam are everywhere in India. Poora Hindustan hamara hai,” he said at a public meeting held in the city on Thursday night.
In a separate public meeting, Akbaruddin Owaisi asked Revanth Reddy to remember that his party supremo hailed from Italy. Akbaruddin Owaisi, in an unheard-of challenge from a Muslim leader and one all too often thrown by saffron party leaders, asked Revanth Reddy to state under oath at the Bhagyalakshmi temple that he had no RSS roots.
Sources said that the leadership of the two parties had sensed a drift in the minority vote particularly after the Karnataka polls where the minority vote consolidated in favour of the Congress. In various public meetings addressed by Owaisi across Telangana, Muslim voters, in particular the youths, have raised their voices against the BRS government and complained of local BRS leaders’ highhandedness.
Meanwhile, the Revanth Reddy camp was elated over the two parties training their guns on their leader apparently endorsing his candidature for the Chief Ministership after a Congress victory.
