Cong attacks BJP over Sakshi Maharaj's Owaisi remark
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New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday took a dig at the BJP after Unnao MP Sakshi Maharaj said that Asaduddin Owaisi will help the BJP in Bengal and Uttar Pradesh just like the AIMIM leader helped the saffron party form the government in Bihar.
Jitin Prasada, Congress in-charge for West Bengal, said, "The people of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have also seen through this nexus and will not let this match-fixing go through."
Earlier in the day, Sakshi Maharaj, had told the media, "It is God's grace. May God give him (Owaisi) strength. He helped us in Bihar and will help us (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh panchayat and Assembly polls and also in West Bengal."
The BJP MP said that AIMIM's participation in Uttar Pradesh and Bengal elections will help the BJP win in those states.
After the Bihar elections, the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had dubbed Owaisi as the 'B Team of the BJP'.
However, the AIMIM chief strongly resented the tag and denied having helped the BJP with his brand of politics.
The AIMIM had contested the Assembly elections in Bihar last year, allegedly cutting into Muslim votes that go to the opposition, thus leading to the NDA's victory. Owaisi's party won five seats in the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region - a large figure given that the NDA won just 15 more seats than the Mahagathbandhan.
However, the allegations were found baseless in several analysis. AIMIM had contested in 20 seats in Bihar where they won five seats. Nine out of the twenty seats were won by Mahagatbandhan and the remaining six stood with NDA.
An analysis by Aditya Menon in The Quint had said that the spoiler blame against AIMIM had worked only in seat i.e., Raniganj where NDA's victory margin was 2,304 and votes polled by AIMIM was 2,412.
Owaisi has now announced his party's intention to contest the next state elections in Uttar Pradesh as part of a front led by former BJP ally Om Prakash Rajbhar.
Owaisi had on Tuesday visited some districts in eastern Uttar Pradesh, accompanied by Rajbhar.
Elections in Uttar Pradesh are due next year while West Bengal will go to the polls few months later this year.
Owaisi was one of the few members who had taken a strong stand against CAA, economic reservation and repealing of Jammu & Kashmir's special status.
Owaisi had tore down the copy of CAA in the parliament during a debate on the act and he was one of the three members who opposed the economic reservation.
(Based on IANS feed)
