Asaduddin Owaisi and the BJP
The year 2014 was when Owaisi was first called the ‘B-team’ of the BJP. Reason, his AIMIM whose base is strong primarily in Hyderabad, had decided to contest Assembly elections in Maharashtra. In a state where the fight was between the National Democratic Alliance and the Congress, AIMIM’s presence is believed to have divided ‘secular votes’ in favour of the BJP.
In 2015 AIMIM contested six seats in Bihar’s Seemanchal region. Even though the party did not win there, the Congress front which included the Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had accused Owaisi, of being the BJP’s B-team. The NDA came to power in Bihar Assembly that year.
Subsequently too, the AIMIM, with its almost entirely Muslim base, has been accused of being ‘a vote cutter’, when it contested yet again in the Maharashtra and Bihar Assembly elections in 2019. It won two seats in Maharashtra and one in Bihar.
To this reporter the President of AIMIM has said on more…