India: Muslim community has no leader despite 19% population: Owaisi

Asaduddin Owaisi

Kanpur: Flaying the political parties for using Muslims as just a vote bank, Asaduddin Owaisi, MP and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president said that his community has no leader in Uttar Pradesh despite having 19 % of the Muslim population.

Addressing a massive crowd at the Aqueel Ground here, he said, "The condition of Muslims has become like a 'band Baja party' in a marriage procession where they (Muslims) are first asked to play music but are made to stand outside on reaching the wedding venue.

Now Muslims will not play the instrument. Even every caste has a leader, but Muslims have no leader. There is 19% Muslim population in UP but there is not a single leader."

He dubbed the anti-CAA stir deceased as martyrs. May all those who killed those people perish, he added.

He dedicated his supposedly second address to the city's Mohd Raees, Mohd Saif and Aftab Alam who got martyred during police firing in December 2020.

Given the next year's assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, he has been criticising the SP, BSP and Congress.

He even indicted them of using the  Muslims for only votes and doing nothing in return.

Even the so-called secular parties, which were getting the votes of the Muslims, never allowed a Muslim leadership to emerge, he maintained.

However, the SP and BSP have slammed the AIMIM chief for serving the BJP's interest by dividing their community votes. The Shiv Sena in Maharashtra has also criticised Owaisi in the strictest words.