It's personal defeat of Modi: Owaisi

Hyderabad: MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday said the Bihar assembly elections result is a personal defeat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"It's a personal defeat of Modi as never before a prime minister campaigned so much in an election," said the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief, whose party contested six of the 243 constituencies but drew a blank.

"Never before in the history of independent India, we had seen a sitting prime minister getting so involved and addressing more than 35 public meetings," the Hyderabad MP told reporters at Darussalam, the MIM headquarters.

Stating that people of Bihar have given decisive mandate against communalism and fascism, he congratulated Nitish Kumar and other partners of Grand Alliance.

"The atmosphere in Bihar was that Modi should be defeated. Muslims and other communities had decided to defeat Modi," he said.

Owaisi hoped that Nitish and the alliance would live up to people's expectations and work for the development of Bihar, especially the backward region of Seemanchal.

Owaisi, whose party contested six seats in Seemanchal, said it would continue to fight for the development of the region and to get justice for the people.

While admitting that the MIM could not win the confidence of people, he said perhaps their hard work and the time was not sufficient.

"Many people told me that we should have started (the campaign) early. Others wanted us to continue our work to fight the long battle of Seemanchal," said Owaisi.

The MP said the biggest takeaway for MIM from Bihar elections is that it made a beginning in that state and introduced itself to the people.

"The biggest takeaway is that we went there (and) established our organization. We will continue to go there, overcome our shortcomings and strengthen the party," he said.

He was confident of a better performance in the next assembly elections.