AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi praises Telangana CM KCR in Bihar

“I must say KCR has a vision. And he has done something worthwhile during his tenure so far,” said Owaisi on Sunday, 19 March, in reply to a question about the prime ministerial ambitions of regional satraps like Rao.

Owaisi also praised KCR’s counterparts in Bihar and West Bengal, Nitish Kumar and Mamata Banerjee, respectively.

Also read: BRS supports AIMIM candidate Hyderabad local bodies election

Lauds progress of Telangana

“Telangana is a landlocked state. Yet it has a very impressive gross state domestic product. It used to rank the highest in terms of the use of pump sets. It is still the second-highest producer of fisheries,” said the AIMIM Chief, whose party has seven MLAs in the 119-strong Assembly.

Although KCR’s party, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), enjoys a brute majority, it faces a challenge in the upcoming elections with the BJP making inroads and, according to many political experts, tipped to replace the Congress as the principal Opposition in Telangana.

The AIMIM and BRS do not have a formal alliance in Telangana but share a friendly relationship.

Earlier, the BRS extended support to the candidate fielded by the AIMIM in the Hyderabad local bodies constituency elections.

Asaduddin Owaisi also clarified that the AIMIM would be contesting more seats in the Telangana Assembly election “only when the right time comes”. This statement came after his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi claimed that AIMIM would be contesting 50 seats in the upcoming polls.

Spat with KTR 

However, in the first week of February, the Telangana Assembly witnessed a verbal spat between AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi and IT Minister KT Rama Rao over the delay of developments in the Hyderabad old city.

The issue was resolved in a few days after KTR chaired a review meeting and addressed the developmental plans.

Akbaruddin Owaisi, who was part of that meeting expressed satisfaction over the decisions and said, “My party is ready to extend all forms of support and cooperation to implement the state government’s development programmes at a rapid pace.”

Also read: KTR and Owaisi Jr review development plans for Old Hyderabad

Asaduddin Owaisi also lambasted the Congress and its allies for “crying democracy is in danger over what happened in Maharashtra but looking the other way when our MLAs in Bihar were lured away”.

The AIMIM won five seats in the Bihar Assembly polls of 2020 and four of its MLAs joined the RJD last year, one of them even getting a cabinet berth.

Owaisi said, “We wanted an alliance with Mahagathbandhan in 2020, but they derided us… Our performance was there for all to see. We had contested only 10 seats. In 2025, we will field our candidates in 50 constituencies of the 243-strong Bihar Assembly”.

(With PTI inputs)