Congress offered me Rs 25 lakh: Asaduddin Owaisi

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi participated in a public meeting on Monday night in Nirmal. He made sensational comments on Congress. He said that he was offered Rs 25 lakh for not to hold an MIM meeting in Nirmal. He has an audio recording of the offer and there was no way it could be denied. Though Owaisi himself did not name who had made the money offer, when he made the revelation, he prompted the crowd which mentioned the name of the local Congress candidate A Maheshwar Reddy. Owaisi said the Rs 25 lakh offer was made for party fund so that the MIM would not conduct its meeting in Nirmal.

 It may be mentioned here that in this election, the MIM and TRS are ‘friendly parties’. The TRS has fielded Indrakaran Reddy while the Mahakutami has fielded Congress candidate Maheshwar Reddy. MIM has not fielded any candidate but the MIM meeting was meant to offer support to the TRS party because of the sizeable Muslim population in Nirmal would count for the victory. “Asaduddin will sacrifice his life but cannot be bought. I want to see the MIM spread to the entire country,” he said.

Asaduddin Owaisi also said Congress president Rahul Gandhi had got its party MP and advocate Kapil Sibal to withdraw from arguing in the Babri Masjid case which was in its final stages. Reacting to Congress criticism that the MIM had joined hands with the BJP, Owaisi laughed it off. He pointed out that it was Congress president Rahul Gandhi who had gone over to where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sitting in parliament and hugged him. “Rahul Gandhi wanted to hug him and Modi wanted to be hugged. And now, the Congress is alleging that the MIM is friends with the BJP,” he said.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu also came under direct attack. “When Gujarat was burning, Naidu was sailing with the then Prime Minister Vajpayee. Now, because he wants to protect his own future, he has distanced himself from Modi,” he said. Owaisi told the crowd: “There is no point in riding a bicycle (the TDP symbol), choose the car (TRS symbol)”.

Echoing what TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has been saying, he said the need of the hour was to keep both the Congress and BJP at bay. He said he favoured all regional parties coming together, including the TMC, DMK, JDS and the TRS led by KCR.Owaisi also indicated the strength of the MIM. “We are the engine of the car. We are the petrol for the car,” he said how crucial MIM was for the TRS.