'Only Trump left to campaign': Asaduddin Owaisi's dig at BJP over Hyderabad municipal polls

Taking a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for deploying top leaders to campaign for the upcoming Hyderabad civic polls, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday said it didn’t look like an election for Hyderabad anymore but appeared to be a contest for the prime minister’s post. Addressing a public meeting at Hyderabad’s Langer House, Owaisi said: “Looking at the BJP, it doesn’t look like  Hyderabad’s Baldia election, it’s as if we’re electing a prime minister in the place of Narendra Modi,” Owaisi said. “All of them have come.. I was at a rally in Karwan and said that everyone has been called here, a child said they should have called Trump  too. He was right, only Trump is left.”

LIVE: AIMIM President Barrister @asadowaisi addresses a public meeting at Langar house Division #GHMCelections2020 https://t.co/tpmlSfbPzK

— AIMIM (@aimim_national) November 28, 2020

The BJP has roped in its top guns, from party national president JP Nadda to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, to campaign for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) election slated to be held on 1 December. Various leaders such as Union minister Smriti Irani and Prakash Javadekar and Bengaluru south MP Tejasvi Surya have joined in the electioneering. Union home minister Amit Shah is also in the city on Sunday to campaign for the party. According to Indian Express,  Owaisi had on Wednesday challenged the saffron party to also bring the prime minister to the city and see how many seats the party would win then. “You (BJP) bring Narendra Modi to the old city and campaign here. We will see what happens. Bring the prime minister himself; why are you bringing others, bring him. Organise his meeting here and we will see how many seats you win over here,” the newspaper quoted Owaisi as saying. In his speech on Saturday, Owaisi also attacked the saffron party over its Telangana unit president and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s “ surgical strike ” remarks. Without naming Kumar, Owaisi said," One individual from the BJP said that if the party wins the election, it will carry put a surgical strike on the old city. What surgical strike are you going to carry out? You should have done a strike against unemployment, in which you completely failed. You should have done a strike on poverty, in order to provide relief to the poor. You should have done a surgical strike on China, which has captured around 900 square kilometres of Indian territory at the Depsang lake in Ladakh and also has captured the place where 20 of our brave soldier, including a major from Telangana, lost their lives." “Instead of doing a strike there, you are talking of a surgical strike when an election comes,” Owaisi alleged. “This is the first dispensation, which is calling the residents of one of the localaities of a city in its own territory as Pakistani and Rohingya, that there are Pakistanis and Rohingya in the old city, " he said. Telangana chief minister and TRS president  on Saturday also questioned whether it was a municipal election or a national election, reported news agency PTI. In an apparent reference to the BJP, the chief minister said that some divisive forces are trying to enter Hyderabad and create havoc in the city. “Please save Hyderabad from these divisive forces,” he said at a public meeting, urging people to support the TRS. While the election is scheduled for 1 December, votes will be counted on 4 December. With inputs from PTI