Navneet Rana. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
Invoking a provocative statement by All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi from 2013, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Navneet Rana issued a veiled warning to the Owaisi brothers in their stronghold Hyderabad on May 8.
Also read: Lok Sabha elections | Highlights on May 08, 2024
To the AIMIM leader’s statement that they would take them all of ’15 minutes’ to balance out the “Hindu-Muslim ratio” in the country, Ms. Rana, who seeking a fresh term in the Lok Sabha from Amravati, albeit on a BJP ticket this time; hit back at the Owaisi brothers, saying “it would take us 15 seconds if the police were removed or made to stand down”.
“The younger brother says ‘remove the police for 15 minutes so that we can show them what we can do’. I want to tell the younger brother [Akbaruddin] that it might take you 15 minutes, but it will only take us 15 seconds….it will take us all of 15 seconds if we come to the forefront,” Ms. Rana was heard saying in a video clip she posted on her X handle, tagging the Owaisi brothers.
At a meeting in 2013, Mr. Akbaruddin Owaisi warned “100 crore Hindus” that his community would show what it could do if the police were withdrawn for ’15 minutes’. Ms. Ranaa made the remark while campaigning for Madhavi Latha, who is the BJP’s candidate for the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency.
The fiery leader and entrepreneur is pitted against a formidable opponent in the form of four-time Lok Sabha MP and AIMIM chief, Asaduddin Owaisi. This is the first time that the BJP has fielded a female candidate from the Hyderabad constituency. Mr. Asaduddin Owaisi has been the elected representative from Hyderabad since 2004.
He was previously elected as an MLA twice in the erstwhile undivided Andhra Pradesh. Before Mr. Asaduddin Owaisi, who won the seat for the first time in 2004, Hyderabad was represented in the Lok Sabha by his father, Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, from 1984. Apart from the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat, all Assembly seats in Hyderabad, except Goshamahal, are held by the AIMIM.
The Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency comprises seven Assembly segments — Bahadurpura, Chandrayangutta, Charminar, Goshamahal, Karwan, Malakpet and Yakatpura. All Assembly seats, with the sole exception of Goshamahal, are presently held by the AIMIM. Voting for all 17 seats in Telangana will take place on May 13 in the fourth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. In the 2019 polls, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which was then christened as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), won nine seats, while the BJP bagged four. The Congress and the AIMIM brought up the rear with three and one seats respectively.