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All India Majlis E Ittehad ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and Hyderabad MP, Asaduddin Owaisi, on Sunday April 19, said that Muslims should not be blamed for the 1947 Partition, and held the Congress among those responsible, citing Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s book India Wins Freedom.

Addressing a public rally in Gujarat’s Limbayat, he said, “Muslims were not responsible for the partition. Is the Congress party not among those responsible for the partition? In his book India Wins Freedom, Maulana Azad writes that he went to Gandhi and Nehru and appealed to them not to let India be divided.”

Hitting back at the Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) for calling AIMIM the BJP’s “B team” in West Bengal, Owaisi defended his party’s decision to contest 11 seats. “Some allege that when Owaisi contests elections, the BJP benefits. In West Bengal, Congress is contesting 294 seats, TMC is contesting 294 seats, the Left Front is contesting 250 seats, and Owaisi’s party is contesting 11 seats. BJP is also contesting 294 seats. They have a problem with me contesting the elections… Forget 11, win 270 seats and defeat the BJP… How long will you keep this society from forming its own leadership?” he said.

Projecting AIMIM as a constitutional challenger to the BJP, Owaisi added, “If anyone can stop the BJP and, within the bounds of the Constitution, look them in the eye and force them to accept our rights, then that party is the AIMIM… This is the time to stand up and assert your rights.”

Earlier, speaking in Asansol, he targeted the TMC and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, blaming them for the BJP’s rise in the state. “If the BJP is strong in Bengal, then the TMC and Mamata Banerjee are responsible for that. The damage that the BJP and PM Narendra Modi do to India’s Constitution and Muslims, especially the poor, is equally done by the TMC,” he alleged.

He also accused the state government of neglecting minority-dominated regions. “In those blocks of Bengal where there are a large number of Muslims, there are no schools, no hospitals, and if there is a hospital, there are no beds; if there are beds, there are no doctors. In those areas, people don’t even have access to clean water, and farmers aren’t given any help… Here, women are facing the biggest problems,” Owaisi claimed.