Congress has blatantly promoted Hindutva in last four years: Asaduddin Owaisi

In the run up to the Lok Sabha elections, the Hyderabad-based All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, or AIMIM, is trying to mark its presence in the states of Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. The 91-year-old party is led by Asaduddin Owaisi, its lone member of parliament, who is eyeing a fourth consecutive win from the Hyderabad constituency. The AIMIM has declared its support to the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh, and had supported the Janata Dal (Secular) in the Karnataka assembly elections last year. In Maharashtra, the AIMIM is part of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi—an alliance of Dalits, Muslims and other marginalised groups—which was spearheaded by Prakash Ambedkar, the president of the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh.

The AIMIM’s traditional base is in the old city of Hyderabad, from where Owaisi had won with a margin of over two lakh votes in the 2014 general elections. That year, the AIMIM was recognised as a state party in Telangana, after seven out of the 20 candidates it fielded won the assembly elections. In the 2018 assembly elections, it contested eight seats and won seven of them again. The AIMIM had supported the Congress in undivided Andhra Pradesh since 1998 and was a part of the United Progessive Alliance, but pulled out of the coalition in 2012. After the 2014 general elections, the party entered into an alliance with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and continues to be a staunch supporter of its leader and the chief minister of Telangana, K Chandrasekar Rao.

In an interview with Nileena MS, a reporting fellow with The Caravan, at the party headquarters at Darussalam in Hyderabad, Owaisi spoke about the upcoming elections, and the AIMIM’s plans and allies. Among other things, Owaisi discussed how the Congress had adopted the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hindutva ideology to contest the elections, the need for all marginalised groups to come together, and the role of regional parties in the Lok Sabha elections. “Let’s share this burden of defeating BJP equally,” Owaisi said. “Why only regional parties?”