Owaisi counters Imams' body on 'vote-cutter' charge, justifies AIMIM's WB poll plunge

On Thursday, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi countered the Bengal Imams' Association on its charge that his party helped BJP by dividing votes of the Muslim community. A day earlier, Mohammed Yahiya- the chairman of this Imams' body stated that their community does not need any Muslim leader from outside West Bengal. Disapproving of religious fanaticism, he added that they will not allow the division of Muslim votes in the state. This comes in the wake of AIMIM's decision to contest the WB Assembly election due in April-May this year.

According to Owaisi, the "undivided vote" of Muslims had not fetched any dividends for the community for over 70 years. To buttress his point, he highlighted that 37% of WB's prison population is Muslim despite the community constituting only 27% of the state's population. Moreover, he reiterated that influential cleric Abbas Siddiqui will be integral to AIMIM's plans in the upcoming Assembly polls. Once considered a vocal supporter of the Trinamool Congress in the past, Siddiqui has been taking on the state government in the recent past. 

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Owaisi takes dig at WB CM

Speaking exclusively to Republic TV on Monday, Owaisi held WB CM Mamata Banerjee responsible for BJP's rise in the state. Furthermore, he stressed that BJP could not have won 18 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in WB if the state government had implemented good policies. In a veiled reference to former TMC heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari joining BJP, the AIMIM supremo contended that Banerjee could not run her own party efficiently. The Mamata Banerjee-led party had swept the 2016 Assembly polls by bagging 211 seats in the 294-member Assembly.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi remarked, "We feel that Mamata Banerjee is responsible for the emergence of BJP in West Bengal. If she had good policies, BJP would not have won 18 Parliament seats. If she was good at running her party, the seniormost founder leaders of her party would not have gone and joined BJP."

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