MIM’s alliance with BJP open secret: Shabbir Ali

Says Owaisi’s party is acting as ‘Muslim Morcha’ of BJP and Sangh Parivar

Hyderabad: Leader of Opposition in the State Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Tuesday said that the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s (MIM) secret alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party was no more a secret. Reacting to Gujarat BJP MLA Yatin Oza’s allegations of MIM’s secret pact with BJP during the Bihar elections, Shabbir Ali said that the Congress party had exposed this fact long back.

In a media statement, Shabbir Ali said that the MIM had been acting as the “Muslim Morcha” of BJP and Sangh Parivar since last general elections.
“Under the guise of MIM’s expansion, the party fielded candidates in selected seats so as to divide the non-BJP votes. In Maharashtra Assembly elections, the MIM contested 24 seats.

Although it won only two seats, it divided Muslim votes in other seats. The division directly helped BJP-Shiv Sena win eight seats. It tried to implement the same strategy in Bihar Assembly elections, but the MIM was outrightly rejected by the people of Bihar,” the Congress leader said.

Ali asked BJP National President Amit Shah and MIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi to clarify on the meeting which they had before Bihar elections. “MIM contested Bihar elections only to benefit the BJP.

If Owaisi was serious, then MIM should have contested in entire Bihar. Initially, MIM President Asaduddin Owaisi announced that his party would contest all 24 seats of Muslim-dominated Seemanchal area. Finally, it contested only on six seats out of 243 constituencies in Bihar. All this was done at the instance of BJP leadership only to polarise elections,” he said.

“The Owaisi brothers, alongside Sangh Parivar, are on a mission to divide the country on communal lines. By playing the Hindu-Muslim card, the ‘BJP-MIM combine’ is aiming at political gains. They were successful in Maharashtra, failed in Bihar and are now adopting a similar approach in Uttar Pradesh. In Telangana too, both BJP and MIM are supplementing each other,” he said.

Shabbir Ali also accused Asaduddin Owaisi of trying to politicise the issues like “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and even arrests made by the NIA. “MIM tried to gain political mileage out of the terror attack in Holy Madina. It should have organised a massive protest in Hyderabad against the terror attack in Holy Madina.

But it confined itself to a public meeting where speakers delivered irrelevant speeches targeting political parties, especially the Congress party. They turned the protest meeting into a political event,” he said. The Congress leader appealed to Muslim religious leaders to introspect their stand towards the MIM, which was acting as an ally of the BJP.

“Religious leaders should not allow any politician or party to use them as tools. Asaduddin Owaisi is forcing religious leaders in Hyderabad to endorse his actions,” he alleged.