Congress spokesperson, Dr Sravan Dasoju said, “Raja Singh’s statement shows the level of hatred that he holds against the Muslim community. He does not deserve to be a Member of the Legislative Assembly, which is a symbol of democracy and secularism. He must be expelled from the House forthwith”.

Sravan also pointed out that over 43 criminal cases are booked against Raja Singh for hate-speeches, but no action has been taken yet against him.

“Why Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao was preventing the police from taking action against the BJP MLA, who crossed all the limits? Why MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi was not using his influence over the Chief Minister to send Raja Singh behind the bars for his heinous utterances?” he asked.

Sravan asked that under the former rule of Congress Government in Hyderabad, Akbaruddin Owaisi was arrested for hate-speech in Nirmal, but no action has been taken against Raja Singh so far.

“There should be zero tolerance against people who spread hatred and communalism,” he added.

Sravan also demanded BJP National president Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narender Modi to banish Raja Singh from the BJP Party.

48-year-old Owaisi has been Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) since 1999. He won with whooping results against his counterpart Eesa Misri of Congress party and Shehzadi Begum of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

According to the live trends, around 10 am, Chandrashekar Rao’s party Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) is ahead of 80 seats, while Congress and its alliance Telugu Desam Party (TDP) combined are ahead of 26 seats and BJP with three seats.

Polling for 119 seats of Telangana assembly took place on December 7 and counting began at 8 am today. In the elections, the ruling TRS and BJP have contested alone and the Congress made alliance with Telugu Desam Party (TDP), CPI and Telangana Jan Samiti (TJS).

MIM fielded eight of the 119 assembly seats in Telangana this year, and there has been a continuous fight between the TRS and the Congress in the province.

Owaisi brothers of Hyderabad have been vocal against the Nazi-influenced Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and its subordinate militant organizations.

The duo have been notable and honored in the Muslim, Dalit and Christian communities for bravely confronting the fascist parties.

It commonly believed, any Government formed in Telangana has to make alliance with MIM, hence MIM has kept a strong hold in Hyderabad.

For the last half-a-century, the Charminar Assembly segment in the southern part of the city has not only been a strong bastion of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), but has also turned out to be a stepping stone to the Indian Parliament for two generations of the Owaisi family.

The party won the Charminar seat for the first time in 1967 and since then, it sort of became an AIMIM citadel which opponents, despite best efforts and trying out various strategies, have failed to breach.

This time around, senior party leader Mumtaz Ahmed Khan is testing his luck from the seat.

AIMIM leader the late Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi bagged the seat in 1967 and made his debut as a legislator. He won the seat then by defeating Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS) candidate CL Meghraj by a margin of 7,500 votes. Since then, the party’s firm grip on the constituency ensured its victory even in the toughest of times.

The Charminar seat was a launch pad for party president Asaduddin Owaisi too. In fact, Asaduddin made his debut in full-fledged politics after he contested and won the Charminar seat in 1994. He defeated MBT candidate Hussain Shaheed by a margin of 40,544 votes in an election which had a total of 19 candidates and 17 of them forfeiting their deposits. Asaduddin contested from the seat again in 1999 and won.

Interestingly, after representing the Charminar assembly constituency, both Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi and Asaduddin Owaisi moved over to the Parliament.

During the delimitation of constituencies in 2009, Charminar was bifurcated with a part of it transferred to the newly carved out Bahadurpura assembly constituency. After the delimitation, Ahmed Pasha Quadri won the seat defeating TDP candidate Ali Bin Ibrahim Masqati by 10,695 votes and in 2014, he defeated TDP candidate MA Basith.

The highest polling percentage in Charminar Assembly constituency recorded so far was in the year 1983 at 81.37 percent.

This time around, AIMIM leader Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, who previously successfully held the Yakutpura seat is contesting from here and his close rival is expected to be Congress candidate Mohammed Ghouse, who quit from AIMIM and joined Congress a few years ago.

Salar and the revival of AIMIM

Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, popularly known as Salar, meaning commander or leader, was the man who restructured and shaped the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen as a full-fledged and effective political party.

Lead actively by him, the party first won a seat in the municipal election from Mallepally in 1960. In the next two years, it contested Assembly elections and won the Pathergatti Assembly seat in 1962.

SS Owaisi, after the victory, gathered together eminent members of the community and the party started contesting from multiple seats.

In 1962, Salahuddin won from the Pathergatti Assembly seat as an independent candidate and later won from the Charminar constituency in 1967 which he represented till 1984. He then entered the Parliament winning the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat in 1984 and setting a record of sorts with six straight terms.
The AIMIM suffered a setback in 1993 when its legislator Amanullah Khan ‘revolted’ against the party, charging it of adopting a weak stand on the Babri Masjid demolition issue. He was suspended by the party.

Khan took away Yakutpura legislator Mumtaz Ahmed Khan and floated the Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT). In the elections held in 1994, the strength of AIMIM slipped from the earlier 4 seats to just one i.e., Charminar, while two seats it earlier held were won by MBT candidates, Amanullah Khan and Mumtaz Ahmed Khan.

Salar did pull the party strength back into shape soon. He died in 2008 and since then, his son Asaduddin Owaisi is the president of the AIMIM.

Article first published on TelanganaPost.

Asif Yar Khan is a senior journalist and writer.

The foolhardy BJP’s spokesperson Sambit Partra, infamous for his cynical and brazen insults towards his fellow panelists on TV debates, was debating an unknown MIM’s (Majlis Ittehadul-Muslimeen) representative – Syed Waqar – under the context of BJP’s latest name-changing craze.

Waqar implied that BJP has insulted their god Vishnu by renaming Lucknow’s Ekana stadium to late Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s name, since Ekana is one of the names of Vishnu.

Baffled by the statement, Patra lost his control and yelled, “Aye Suno Allah ke bhakt ho to baith jao warna kisi masjid ka naam badal kar bhagwan Vishnu ke naam rakh doonga” – “Listen, if you are Allah’s slave keep quiet, otherwise, I will rename any mosque with Vishnu’s name.”

During a debate in the past on IndiaToday, Patra humiliated a Congress spokesperson as Rahul Gandhi’s dog, which forced the show’s anchor Rajdeep Sardesai to issue an apology.

Muslim representatives have condemened Patra’s untamed remarks and demanded immediate apology. However, Patra has enjoyed insulting his opponents with impunity.