The Hyderabad MP, Owaisi, is seeking to expand his party’s footprint outside Telangana and Andhra Pradesh from the last five years
Kolkata: On Tuesday West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee referred All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Musalmeen AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and she said that “I am watching some extremists among minorities” which have their “base in Hyderabad”.
The Trinamool Congress supremo made the statement while addressing party workers at Coochbehar in North Bengal. This is the first time that Banerjee has made a reference to “minority” extremism as she was sounded as fine-tune her rhetoric against BJP and at the same time guard against Owaisi making inroads.
The Hyderabad MP, Owaisi, is seeking to expand his party’s footprint outside Telangana and Andhra Pradesh from the last five years.
AIMIM party recently won a by-poll to Kishangunj Assembly seat. The assembly segment with a high concentration of minorities borders West Bengal. He has also been trying to make inroads into West Bengal.
Last week an AIMIM spokesperson in West Bengal had made a provocative statement and WB CM’s strong statement on Owaisi is being seen to quell attempts to polarize polity.
Banerjee’s comments, although it did not name any person, it was a sharp response from Owaisi, who tweeted that it’s not religious extremism to say that Bengal’s Muslims have one of the worst human development indicators of any other minority.
“If Didi is worried about a bunch of us ‘from Hyderabad’ then she should tell us how BJP won 18/42 LS seats from West Bengal,” Owaisi said.
The Bengal Chief Minister’s statement on “minority extremism” came after she offered prayers at the Madan Mohan Temple in Coochbehar and then visited the Rash Mela on the Rajbari grounds. Banerjee visit came six days after BJP’s Coochbehar MP Nisith Pramanik came in a grand procession to the temple last Tuesday.
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