UP polls: Owaisi denies helping BJP win

​Hyderabad: MIM President and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday rebutted the charge that Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen had helped the BJP win Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Addressing a media conference at party headquarters Darulsalaam on Saturday, Asaduddin Owaisi said the MIM had contested only 35 seats in Uttar Pradesh and had no presence in 368 other seats.

However, he said some 'so-called secular parties' had been accusing the MIM of dividing Muslim vote which helped the BJP win elections.

He said the 'so-called secular forces' of UP had failed to prevent division of Muslim and secular votes paving the way for BJP's victory. He said MIM never supported the BJP and it would never sail with it.

The MIM chief said the division of secular votes helped the BJP win from seats like Deoband where nearly 80 per cent voters are Muslims. The secular parties need serious introspection on their performances and strategies. He said the Congress party too should analyse the reasons for its failure.

The MIM believed in working for nation building and fighting communalism by taking Dalits along with it, he said. Asaduddin Owaisi said that the MIM contested in Uttar Pradesh for the first time and it got people's overwhelming support.

He said MIM's candidate from Sambhal constituency Zia-ur-Rahman got over 60,000 votes and stood second. He said that the MIM would strengthen its base UP and would surely win elections in future. The MIM chief also said that the Election Commission of India should take a serious note of letter sent by BSP supremo Mayawati alleging tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).