Bihar Assembly Elections | Congress, RJD too scared to talk about CAA, NRC: Asaduddin Owaisi

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) received 5 seats within the Bihar Assembly election, getting over 5 lakh votes out of the 4 crore polled. A day after the outcomes, its president Asaduddin Owaisi stresses on the necessity to converse about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Excerpts:

The central theme of your marketing campaign in Bihar 2020 elections was the CAA and the NRC and the muted response of the RJD and the Congress on them. Can you clarify why this was so key to your marketing campaign.

I disagree with you, this was not the central level, this was a part of the problems we have been elevating. We have been persistently speaking about injustice in the direction of Seemanchal. This is a area that sees annual floods throughout which 1000’s of acres of land are alienated. There is an absence of instructional institutes.

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Also, for the final 25 years, the RSS and the BJP have been saying that there are lots of ghuspetis (infiltrators) in Seemanchal as a result of the world is strategically situated with the Bangladesh and Nepal border at a detailed distance. It was solely our social gathering that has been rebutting this propaganda. We have been the one ones who protested towards the CAA and the NRC in Seemanchal. When you go to individuals, you’ve to handle the issues that matter to them. We would not have the compulsions of different events such because the Congress or the RJD who’re far too afraid that in the event that they converse on the CAA or the NRC, their feedback would assist the BJP. The CAA is unconstitutional, how is it a communal concern alone?

So you might be saying that the Congress and the RJD have been too afraid to converse out and that left a vacuum which you got here to occupy within the area?

We have been working persistently for the final 5 years. People have seen this. When floods occurred, we performed medical camps and distributed reduction. When migrant staff returned, they have been forcibly put in quarantine centres and we got here to assist them. And over and above what we did inside and outdoors Parliament additionally performed a task. And third, this talk by the RJD and the Congress accusing us of being a B-team of the BJP is weird. And fourth, girls voters performed an enormous position within the AIMIM victory. In all my political rallies, there have been an enormous variety of girls, one thing I’ve by no means seen in my political life. In Kochadhaman, in my final assembly of the marketing campaign, I used to be far too drained and once I was leaving, few girls approached me. They mentioned, ‘You don’t fear, they [Congress-RJD] are talking lots of nonsense about you and we’ll give them an apt response on November 7.’

Do you remorse contesting this election in an alliance, fielding candidates in simply 21 seats, contemplating that amongst your allies solely BSP received a seat. Do you’re feeling you’d have received way more seats had you gone solo?

No. I’m actually grateful to Devendra Yadav of the Samajwadi Janata Dal, Upendra Kushwaha of the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party. And I credit score them for the victory of our social gathering.

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What does the longer term maintain for you in Bihar? Do we anticipate a much bigger position and can you broaden past Seemanchal?

The first precedence will probably be that our MLAs work actually arduous and take a look at to fulfil the guarantees we made to the voters. We will probably be preventing inside and outdoors the Assembly. Our presence is already being felt with these 21 seats. We will strengthen our social gathering extra.

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Will we see the AIMIM contesting West Bengal elections in 2021?

I will probably be talking to my Bengal social gathering unit. We will probably be having a radical dialogue with them. If they’re assured sufficient that we should always contest, then we’ll take a call on it. Many of my social gathering members have been despatched to jail on false expenses. Of course, there was lots of curiosity in us, particularly within the border space of West Bengal like Uttar Dinajpur and Islampur which are in Kishanganj’s neighbourhood. I don’t have a particular reply but.