BJP keeps winning because opposition is a failure: Owaisi

Hyderabad: The BJP is winning elections consistently because the opposition is a failure (nakaam) and because it has consolidated the Hindu votes, Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has said, rejecting suggestions that he cuts into anti-Modi votes.

"How can you put the blame on me, tell me?" Owaisi said in an interview to PTI Videos on Saturday.

"If I contest in Hyderabad, Aurangabad, Kishanganj and a few other seats in the 2024 Parliamentary elections and BJP gets 240 seats then am I responsible?" Owaisi said.

"BJP is coming to power because the opposition is a failure (nakaam). BJP is winning elections because it has consolidated almost 50 per cent of the Hindu vote," he said, adding that attempts to blame him, and call him BJP's B-Team are nothing but the opposition's "hatred" for his party because it largely represents Muslims.

Opposition parties like the Congress have scoffed at Owaisi's attempts to grow his All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party outside its stronghold of the Hyderabad region, saying he ends up benefitting the BJP by taking away a chunk of votes, mostly Muslims.

The fifth-term Lok Sabha MP has countered, accusing opposition parties of taking the Muslim votes for granted and paying little heed to their real concerns.

He said, "When every segment of the society has a semblance of political leadership, and that's acceptable to you but you don't want that Muslims should have a semblance of political voice, political leadership," he said.

Asked if he was referring to Congress, he said he is referring to all opposition parties, including BSP, SP and BJP.

"Yadav will be a leader, Musalmaan will be a beggar. Upper caste will be a leader, Musalmaan will be a beggar. How is that fair tell me," Owaisi said.

He lamented that the founding fathers of India had envisaged the country as a participatory democracy, "so where is the participation of Muslims?" "When it is a question of India's integrity and security we will come forward and stand by the Indian military. But we do have to talk about the problems inside our homes, no?" He pointed out that despite being the largest minority group in the country with nearly 15 per cent population, Muslims have only 4 per cent participation in legislatures and Parliament.

Asked why that is so, he said it's because political parties don't give tickets to Muslims to contest elections, and then people don't vote for Muslims.

He cautioned that India cannot achieve the "Viksit Bharat" goal by 2047 by keeping such a large community marginalised and weak. Political parties should stop looking at Muslims as vote banks, and instead work to uplift them, educate them, treat them fairly and give them jobs, he added.

"Our fight is that we don't want to remain voters. We want to be citizens." Owaisi's attempts to emerge as a leader with an electoral appeal outside his citadel have met with some success as his party has won a few seats, especially those with a large Muslim population, in states like Bihar and Maharashtra in past elections.

His unabashed championing of Muslim grievances and aspirations has won him admirers in the community across the country.