Owaisi gets into high gear for Telangana civic polls

HYDERABAD: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi sounded the bugle for an intense campaign for the forthcoming GHMC elections, and said that the party would organise public rallies, wherein he would “speak a lot”. Owaisi, who was accompanied by his brother and Chandrayangutta MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi, said, “The civic body elections are round the corner. The MIM’s saga began from the Bihar elections, and it will continue. There will be rallies and I will speak a lot, that I promise.”

The brothers laid the foundation stone of the 11th branch of Owaisi School of Excellence in Omer Colony (one of the major areas hit by the floods). Owaisi reminded citizens that the party has been by their side during the “bad times”.

“The people, who weren’t there to support you, will appear out of nowhere during the elections,” he said. “In Bihar, the people accused us of being BJP’s B-team, a vote cutter and so on. But Allah gave them a befitting reply with the result. We were ready to talk (with other parties), but they said they ‘won’t talk to sherwani’,” he said.

Owaisi pointed out that his grandfather Abdul Wahed Owaisi started off the party’s foray into electoral politics with a civic body election, and that his father continued the same during his tenure as the party chief.

He assured the people that he would follow their footsteps. Owaisi also said that people may rightly question the party for falling behind in managing civic issues, but pointed out that MIM has been working towards furthering education of the community in Old City. Meanwhi le, Akbruddin warned the public not to lie about their situation to avail benefits offered by the State.