Mysuru: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president and Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday said that his party would field candidates in the upcoming elections to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
The Hyderabad-based party had performed well in the elections to the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation held recently.
Owaisi, who is on a private visit to the city, hit out at the Congress and the state government for imposing a ban on his entry to Bengaluru city.
The emergence of AIMIM in Maharashtra has started to haunt the Congress, Owaisi said and added that the party (Congress) had not learnt a lesson from the poll debacle in Maharashtra.
In an interaction with media persons, he said that Muslims and dalits face common issues like poverty, high rate of school dropouts, less graduates and social discrimination.
Owaisi said that there was no law and order problem after he addressed a meeting near Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada district.
Owaisi said that he has appealed in the High Court against the ban order.
“I can speak in the Indian Parliament, but not on the streets of Bengaluru… they are afraid of me,” the MP added.
“If they (Congress) have done so much (for dailts and Muslims), why is that in 2009 and 2014 elections not even a single Muslim was elected to the Parliament from Karnataka…How many Muslim MLAs are there in the Assembly…?” he asked.
He charged that successive state governments have failed to develop areas with a large Muslim population in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region of the state like Kalaburagi, Bidar and other places.
(Agencies)
