Hyderabad: All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief, Asaduddin Owaisi, on Tuesday, took a swipe at the Congress and the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) over its candidates for the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections.
Polling for the Telangana Assembly will be held in a single phase on November 30.
The BRS handed a fresh ticket to its incumbent MLA from Jubilee Hills, Maganti Gopinath, while the Congress has fielded former India cricket captain and batting stalwart Mohammed Azharuddin from the prestigious seat.
The BJP, which has set sights on pipping the BRS and the Congress in a three-horse race for the state, has fielded Lankala Deepak Reddy from Jubilee Hills Constituency.
Significantly, the AIMIM, which did not field a candidate from Jubilee Hills as part of a deal with the BRS ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls, has nominated Mohammed Rashed Farazuddin from the prized seat.
Lashing out at the Congress Candidate, Owaisi said “This Congress candidate faces four charges of extortion and was booked on the orders of retired Supreme Court judge L Nageswara Rao. He had to secure an anticipatory bail (to fight the elections). He was a Congress MP from 2009-14 but failed to get a ticket thereafter. I can spill more beans on the Congress candidate.”
Also hitting out at the BRS nominee, the Lok Sabha MP from Hyderabad said, “When was the last time you saw Gopinath in Jubilee Hills? When was the last time you saw him at all? What has he done for Jubilee Hills? We were working to bring development here but he put obstacles in the way.
The BRS didn’t do much for development here. There are issues galore here. When you are in politics, you have to be among the people who elected you and serve them. Hence, I would advise people to think long and hard before they vote.”
Earlier, Owaisi said the state could ill-afford either the Congress or the BJP at the hustings.
“The Congress and the BJP have come together as part of a conspiracy to help the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) succeed in its plans of spreading its agenda and find foothold in Telangana. We can neither afford the Congress nor the BJP to come to power,” Owaisi said at a public meeting in Nampally.
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