In the recently concluded and fiercely contested Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls, the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) won 44 seats out of the 51 it contested. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) won the highest number of seats -55, while the BJP made significant electoral inroads, increasing its tally from four seats to 48.
After the saffron party emerged the second-largest party in GHMC polls, Owaisi dismissed the "BJP storm" and asked, "Where is the storm?" "Had there been a storm, BJP wouldn’t have lost in Maharashtra MLC election. BJP had said they would conduct surgical strike in old city. But they couldn’t do anything in my area. We did democratic strike. We contested in 51 seats and won 44. Think what would have happened had AIMIM contested in 80 seats." The AIMIM chief added that his party had contested in 60 seats and won 44 in 2016, making this year’s strike rate better.
Meanwhile, a video of Owaisi has gone viral on social media. In a recent news debate, the AIMIM chief was asked to prove his patriotism. "Sabit kijiye Owaisi ji apki deshbhakti (Owaisi, prove your patriotism)," the news anchor said.
Check out Owaisi's response:
A Twitter user wrote, "Brilliant response by @asadowaisi. No Indian Muslim or any Indian for that matter, needs to prove his/her patriotism to ANYONE EVER!" "Never been a @asadowaisi fan but I couldn’t agree with him more here. Indian Muslims are Indians first, rightly said. There are bad apples in all religions," said another Twitter user.
Here are a few Twitter reactions: