Telangana polls: Asaduddin Owaisi and Revanth Reddy accuse each other of being RSS agents

Telangana Congress chief Revanth Reddy and AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi have been engaged in a war of words, accusing each other of being Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) agents. Congress’s annoyance with Asaduddin arises out of the fact that AIMIM has chosen to support the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). The BRS and AIMIM do not have a formal alliance, but Asaduddin has yet again extended his support to K Chandrasekhar Rao. 

The Telangana Congress president went to the extent of calling the Hyderabad MP, Qasim Razvi, the president of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and founder of the Razakar militia. 

“You are accusing me of being a RSS member. I thought you wear a pyjama under the sherwani, but you wear a khaki knicker. You are the president of Qasim Razvi’s party. From tomorrow I will call you Qasim Razvi and not Asaduddin Owaisi,” Revanth Reddy said recently.

In response, Asaduddin shot back, “He is an RSS Anna. He began his political life from there and will end there. He won’t leave the RSS. The Congress party’s headquarters is being controlled by Mohan Bhagwat. The comments he is making about kurta, pajama, sherwani, topi, and beard is the language of RSS.” He said that Revanth Reddy’s comments were hateful, reflecting his ‘RSS politics.’ “He hates people who have a beard and wear a topi,” the Hyderabad MP said. Revanth Reddy was a former member of the RSS. He was a student leader of the ABVP and began his political career in the Telugu Desam Party.  

The Congress party has been enraged with Asaduddin Owaisi for not fielding a candidate from their party against hatemonger and BJP’s MLA Raja Singh from Goshamahal constituency, where the headquarters of AIMIM is located. 

Goshamahal is also one of the seven constituencies under the Hyderabad Parliamentary constituency.  It was carved out of Maharajganj in 2008 following the delimitation exercise. Traditionally, AIMIM has never fielded a candidate in Goshamahal, which has a significant Muslim population along with the migrant communities from North India and Gujarat. 

In 2009, Congress candidate Mukesh Goud had won from the constituency. But since then, the party could not make any impact in the constituency. BJP’s Raja Singh, known for his anti-Muslim speeches, has retained the seat since 2014. Raja Singh – suspended from the BJP over his comments against Prophet Muhammed – was recently inducted into the party and given the ticket to recontest from Goshamahal.

In the previous Assembly election, Raja Singh became the only BJP candidate to win the election from Goshamahal. He defeated BRS’s (then TRS) Prem Singh Rathore with a margin of nearly 20,000 votes. The Congress was relegated to a distant third position.   

Besides this, the Congress party is also miffed with the AIMIM for allegedly trying to split the votes in Jubilee Hills, where former Indian cricket captain Azharuddin is contesting, representing the Congress. The AIMIM has nominated Mohammed Rashed Farazuddin to contest from Jubilee Hills. 

According to Congress, the AIMIM had plans to field a candidate against the Congress party’s Muslim leader,  Shabbir Ali. However, Revanth himself decided to contest from Kamareddy in a direct challenge to BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao.

On multiple occasions, Revanth Reddy has questioned why Asaduddin or his brother Akbaruddin were not contesting from the Goshamahal constituency against Raja Singh. “Under your Parliamentary constituency are seven Assembly constituencies, including Goshamahal. AIMIM’s headquarters, Darussalam, is located in Goshamahal. Why don’t you contest from there? What is your relationship with MLA Raja Singh?” Revanth Reddy asked recently.

According to Revanth Reddy, the AIMIM has been deliberately contesting elections in several states, like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, to split the votes to benefit the BJP.