New Delhi:

 A group of people gathered outside the residence of AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi and raised slogans and splashed black paint. Police has registered a case in the matter, officials said on Friday.

Delhi Police officials said a case under sections 143, 506, 153A and 147 of the Indian Penal Code was lodged at the Parliament Street Police station.

On Thursday, some persons came to Mr Owaisi’s residence and created a commotion, they said.

They matter is being investigated, police added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday alleged that some “unknown miscreants” vandalised his Delhi residence with black ink.

The AIMIM MP shared this claim on his X handle and wrote, “Some “unknown miscreants” vandalised my house with black ink today. I have now lost count the number of times my Delhi residence has targeted.”

He further claimed that upon asking about the incident, the Delhi Police expressed their helplessness on this incident.

“When I asked @DelhiPolice officials how this was happening right under their nose, they expressed helplessness.”

Mr Owaisi further asked Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Speaker of Lok Sabha Om Birla on the safety of MPs and wrote, “@AmitShah this is happening under your oversight. @ombirlakota, please tell us if MPs’ safety will be guaranteed or not.”

Mr Owaisi, in his post, regarded this attack as “Savarkar-type cowardly behaviour” and wrote, “To the two-bit goons who keep targeting my house: this does not scare me. Stop this Savarkar-type cowardly behaviour and be men enough to face me. Do not scurry away after throwing some ink or pelting a few stones.”

Some “unknown miscreants” vandalised my house with black ink today. I have now lost count the number of times my Delhi residence has targeted. When I asked @DelhiPolice officials how this was happening right under their nose, they expressed helplessness. @AmitShah this is… pic.twitter.com/LmOuXu6W63

— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) June 27, 2024

Earlier, on Thursday, Asaduddin Owaisi attacked the central government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claiming that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders did not resist the Emergency, rather they wanted the ban on the organisation to be lifted.

The RSS is the ideological parent of the BJP.

In a post on ‘X’, Mr Owaisi wrote, “Speaking of emergency, what was the Sangh Parivar up to? Following the great tradition of Sorryvarkar’s mercy petitions, RSS was eager to please Indira Gandhi.”

“RSS leaders did not resist, they just wanted the ban on RSS to be lifted,” he added.

The 21-month-long period of emergency, which was imposed by the then Congress government led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975, has been in the limelight again as this year marks the 50th anniversary of the emergency, which is considered one of the most controversial periods in India’s political history.

The RSS was banned during the period of emergency by the then-government.

Earlier today, President Droupadi Murmu, addressed the joint sitting of the Parliament and criticised the imposition of ‘Emergency’.

“Emergency was the biggest and darkest chapter of the direct attack on the Constitution. The entire country plunged into chaos during the emergency, but the nation was victorious against such unconstitutional powers,” she said.

The remarks of the President have triggered reactions from the leaders of the INDIA bloc.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

AIMIM chief and the party’s lone Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi claimed his home in Delhi’s high-security Ashoka Road area was vandalised with black ink by some unknown miscreants today.

Sharing a video of police officers wiping the ink off the plaque outside his residence, the MP wrote: “Some “unknown miscreants” vandalised my house with black ink today. I have now lost count of the number of times my Delhi residence has been targeted. When I asked the Delhi Police officials how this was happening right under their noses, they expressed helplessness.”

Some “unknown miscreants” vandalised my house with black ink today. I have now lost count the number of times my Delhi residence has targeted. When I asked @DelhiPolice officials how this was happening right under their nose, they expressed helplessness. @AmitShah this is… pic.twitter.com/LmOuXu6W63

— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) June 27, 2024

Tagging Home Minister Amit Shah and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Mr Owaisi said. “Amit Shah, this is happening under your oversight. Om Birla, please tell us if MPs’ safety will be guaranteed or not.”

The MP, who registered a decisive win from Hyderabad by defeating the BJP’s firebrand candidate Kompella Madhavi Latha by over 3.38 lakh votes, also sent out a message for the “two-bit goons who keep targeting my house”.

“To the two-bit goons who keep targeting my house: this does not scare me… be men enough to face me. Do not scurry away after throwing some ink or pelting a few stones,” he wrote.

Last year, his Delhi home was attacked twice – once in August, when two glass panels on a door were found broken and another in February, when stones were thrown and the nameplate was damaged.

In 2022, his convoy came under fire in Uttar Pradesh while the MP was travelling from Meerut to Delhi. Mr Owaisi, who had a close shave, had said that four shots were fired at his cavalcade. Later two men were arrested in the case.

The five-time Hyderabad MP stirred a huge controversy earlier this week as he expressed solidarity with war-torn Palestine while taking oath as an MP.

The mention triggered massive outrage and strong reactions from members of the treasury benches, prompting the Chair to expunge it.

However, Mr Owaisi defended his Palestine chant and said: “Other members are also saying different things. I said ‘Jai Bheem, Jai Meem, Jai Telangana, Jai Palestine’. How is it wrong? Tell me the provision of the Constitution. You should also listen to what others said. I said what I had to. Read what Mahatma Gandhi had said about Palestine.”

Asked why he mentioned Palestine, Mr Owaisi clarified, “They are oppressed people”.

The Hyderabad MP could be disqualified for “demonstrating adherence to a foreign State, that is Palestine”, sources in the BJP said.

Union Minister and BJP leader Shobha Karandlaje wrote to the Home Minister’s office objecting to the speech and requested the pro tem Speaker to ask Mr Owaisi to take oath once again.

Nashik:

The former mayor of Maharashtra’s Malegaon Abdul Malik Mohammed Yunus Isa was shot by unidentified attackers this morning. Mr Malik, a prominent leader in Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) party, suffered three bullet wounds and was rushed to a local hospital for treatment. 

Mr Malik sustained injuries on the left side of his chest, left thigh, and right hand. As the injuries were severe, the AIMIM leader was then transferred to a hospital in Nashik.

The incident occurred at 1:20 am while Mr Malik was seated outside a shop on Old Agra Road, as per a Malegaon city police official. The local police have launched an extensive investigation, but no arrests have been made so far.

A morphed photo of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi has been shared online with a false claim that it shows him holding a photo of the Hindu deity Lord Ram.

BOOM found out that in the original image, Mr Owaisi, was seen holding a portrait of BR Ambedkar.

Asaduddin Owaisi contested from the Hyderabad constituency, which voted on May 13, 2024, in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections.

Click here to view the post and here for an archive.

Fact Check

BOOM ran a reverse image search on the photo and found that Asaduddin Owaisi posted the original image from his official Facebook page on April 7, 2018.

In the original image, Mr Owaisi was seen holding a portrait of BR Ambedkar.

MR Owaisi posted the photograph and wrote, “Dalits from Mochi Colony met AIMIM President Barrister Asaduddin Owaisi at AIMIM party headquarters Darussalam and thanked him for taking development activities in their area (Ramnaspura div Bahadurpura Constituency).”

Below is a comparison between the viral image and the original photograph posted by Mr Owaisi in 2018.

 (This story was originally published by BOOM, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective.)

Another 96 seats will go to the polls today as the Lok Sabha elections reach their halfway mark in terms of the number of phases –  three stages of polling have been completed and three more will be left after today. Voters will decide the fate of candidates in 10 states, including all 17 seats in Telangana. Andhra Pradesh will also see voting on all 25 of its Lok Sabha constituencies as well as 175 Assembly seats. Assembly elections will begin in Odisha too.

Here’s a look at some of the key contests:

Asaduddin Owaisi vs Madhavi Latha, Hyderabad

With a four-time sitting MP who is still considered popular contesting again, the electoral battle for Hyderabad would ordinarily not have received much attention. But the heated rhetoric and even theatrics, exemplified by the BJP candidate’s alleged gesture of shooting an imaginary arrow towards a mosque – which has led to a case being filed against her – has made the contest the talk of the town.

In one corner of the ring is All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi, who has been the MP from the constituency since 2004, and has been increasing the margin of victory each time. He won with a margin of just over 1 lakh votes in 2004, which went up to over 2.8 lakh in the last general elections. Another thing working in his favour is that the Hyderabad constituency is a family stronghold and was held by Mr Owaisi’s father Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi since 1984.

In the other corner is Madhavi Latha, chairperson of the Virinchi Hospitals chain. Though she is new to politics, the BJP is banking on her Hindutva credentials, experience as a social activist and its strong organisational base to help her win the constituency. 

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury vs Yusuf Pathan, Baharampur

The Baharampur constituency is one of only two that the Congress had won in West Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with the remaining 40 being split between the Trinamool (22) and the BJP (18). This time, the Trinamool Congress has fielded former cricketer Yusuf Pathan against Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress’ Leader in the Lok Sabha.

Mr Chowdhury has been the MP from Baharampur since 1999 and the Congress is fighting the polls in an alliance with the Left Front. The Congress and the Left Front are also part of the INDIA bloc at the Centre, as is the Trinamool Congress, which is, however, contesting on its own in West Bengal. Despite the alliance, Mr Chowdhury is one of the fiercest critics of the Trinamool Congress and its chairperson and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The constituency is, thus, witnessing a prestige battle.

Yusuf Pathan is making his electoral debut and his brother Irfan Pathan, one of India’s former ace pacers, also campaigned for him. The BJP has fielded Nirmal Kumar Saha, a local surgeon.

Mahua Moitra vs Amrita Roy, Krishnanagar

Two high-profile women candidates are battling it out in the Krishnanagar constituency in West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress has backed Mahua Moitra, who was one of the loudest voices against the BJP in the Lok Sabha but was expelled in December last year after being accused of accepting bribes from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in Parliament. 

She had denied all the allegations and the Trinamool Congress, after initially maintaining silence, came out in her support and party chief Mamata Banerjee called her expulsion a “murder of democracy”. Ms Banerjee also held up Ms Moitra’s hand at a rally in support of her earlier this month and a video in which the two leaders were seen dancing had also gone viral.

Ms Moitra, who had won against the BJP’s Kalyan Chaubey by a margin of 60,000 votes last time, is being challenged by Amrita Roy, a member of Krishnanagar’s royal family. People in Krishnanagar still have an emotional connection with the royal family and Ms Roy is affectionately called Rajmata. The BJP’s decision to field her was seen as a surprise but she has emerged as a formidable challenger. 

The CPM candidate is SM Saadi and he may hurt Ms Moitra’s prospects if he cuts into the Muslim vote. Muslims account for 26.76% of the constituency’s population.

Akhilesh Yadav vs Subrat Pathak, Kannauj

With the BJP looking to better its figure of 62 out of 80 constituencies that it had won in 2019, all eyes have been on Uttar Pradesh, parts of which have been voting in every phase of the election. Countering the BJP is the Samajwadi Party, which has tied up with INDIA ally Congress this time, and is fighting 63 seats.

The Samajwadi Party chief, Akhilesh Yadav, is contesting from the party bastion of Kannauj at the insistence of party workers and the candidate who had been named – Mr Yadav’s nephew Tej Pratap Yadav – had been replaced at the last minute. Kannauj had been won by SP candidates since 1998 but the fortress had been breached by the BJP’s Subrat Pathak in 2019, who had defeated Akhilesh Yadav’s wife, Dimple Yadav by a margin of about 12,000 votes. 

Kannauj was held by Mr Yadav thrice and his father, and Samajwadi Party founder, Mulayam Singh Yadav, had also been an MP from the seat, making winning it all the more important for the SP chief. 

Subrat Pathak, who is the BJP candidate from the seat again, has compared his contest with Mr Yadav to an India-Pakistan match and said that it will be an interesting one.

New Delhi:

BJP leader Navneet Rana, a day after she was booked for violating the poll code, challenged AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi to stop her when she comes to Hyderabad. Her remarks came as a response to Mr Owaisi saying that his younger brother Akbaruddin is a ‘canon’ that they are keeping under control.

Ms Rana said that devotees are now roaming across every street in India and they keep such cannons outside their house for decoration.

“Owaisi in a speech said that he has kept his brother under control and he is a cannon. We keep such cannons outside our house for decoration. Ram bhakts and Modi ji’s lions are roaming every street across India now. I am coming to Hyderabad, I would like to see who stops me,” Ms Rana said in a video on X.

मुर्गी और मुर्गी का बच्चा कब तक खैर मनाएंगे @asadowaisi@AkbarOwaisi_MIMpic.twitter.com/iwqX6frGn7

— Navnit Ravi Rana (Modi Ka Parivar) (@navneetravirana) May 10, 2024

Earlier, Ms Rana had attacked Mr Owaisi and his brother by saying that if police were removed from duty for “15 seconds, the brothers would not know from where they came and where they went”.

The comments drew flak from Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Asaduddin Owaisi.

And in other comments also seen as being in poor taste, she declared Madhavi Latha would “definitely stop Hyderabad from turning into Pakistan” and claimed that anyone voting for either the Congress or the AIMIM would simply be voting in favour of Pakistan.

Ms Rana, a former independent MP from Maharashtra’s Amravati, was recently charged with violation of the poll code for saying that “a vote to Congress is a vote for Pakistan”.

New Delhi:

AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi took on the Congress’ Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Thursday after she accused the Hyderabad Lok Sabha MP of “working directly with the Bharatiya Janata Party” and helping the ruling outfit by splitting votes in key constituencies. 

Referring to Rahul Gandhi’s shock 2019 defeat – he lost the Congress bastion of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh to senior BJP leader and Union Minister Smriti Irani – Mr Owaisi pointed out neither his party nor he had been involved in that fight. He also attacked the Congress over “non-secular alliances” – with ex-Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s (then undivided) Shiv Sena, which he linked to the Babri Masjid demolition in UP’s Ayodhya.

“Priyanka Gandhi Vadra… your brother lost Amethi. Did I come and fight there? In Maharashtra, you have an alliance with Uddhav Thackeray. Is he secular? This is the same Shiv Sena whose workers, on December 6, destroyed the Babri Masjid. Are you with them?”

“You are allied with the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi… the same AAP that helped BJP remove Article 370 in J&K… and you call us ‘BJP B-team’?” Mr Owaisi said at a public meeting.

“In the 2019 election you lost 92 per cent of the seats in which you were competing against the BJP. This time you are fighting 300 seats… tell me, how many do you think you will win?”

Mr Owaisi’s sharp response came after Priyanka Gandhi, while campaigning in UP’s Raebareli, another Congress bastion, attacked the AIMIM leader for working with the BJP.

“I am telling you again and again. Asaduddin Owaisi is working directly with the BJP. Wherever the BJP needs him to field someone to push back other parties, he is doing it. It has become very clear in Telangana elections,” she told reporters.

In the run-up to the May 13 election for Telangana’s 17 Lok Sabha seats, including the Hyderabad seat that has been held by Mr Owaisi’s father and then himself since 1984, the Congress has frequently accused the AIMIM of being the BJP’s ‘B-team’.

The charge was firmly rubbished by Mr Owaisi’s brother, Akbaruddin Owaisi, last month. “Some are saying AIMIM is with that team, some are saying it is with the other team. But what I am saying is that AIMIM will be where it has always been,” he said at a poll rally.

Amravati:

Defending her “15-second” remark made against AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Navneet Rana on Thursday said that that she is not afraid of anyone and will continue giving replies to those “working for Pakistan”.

Earlier, while responding to the AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi’s statement that they would take them all of ’15 minutes’ to balance out the “Hindu-Muslim ratio” in the country, Navneet, had hit back at the Owaisi brothers, saying “it would take us 15 seconds if the police were removed or made to stand down”.

“I always stand by my statement. I am not afraid of anyone. We are committed to giving a reply to those who are working for Pakistan in India. If they will take 15 minutes, we will take 15 seconds,” Navneet Rana said.

Rana was heard saying in a video clip she posted on her X handle, tagging the Owaisi brothers, “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.”

Reacting to BJP leader Navneet Rana’s “15-second lagenge” remark, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give her one hour instead of 15 seconds and asserted they are not “scared” of the BJP leader.

“I tell Modi ji – give her 15 seconds. What will you do? Give her 15 seconds, give her 1 hour. We, too, want to see if you have any humanity left in you. Who is scared? We are ready…If someone is making an open call for it, then so be it. PM is yours; RSS is yours; everything is yours. Do it. Who is stopping you? Tell us where we have to come, we will be there. Do it,” Owaisi told reporters on Thursday.

At a meeting in 2013, Akbaruddin warned “100 crore Hindus” that his community would show what it could do if the police were withdrawn for ’15 minutes’.

After fellow party member Navneet Rana’s ’15 seconds lagenge’ remark stoked controversy, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Madhavi Latha on Thursday said that the former wanted to convey to the citizens that it will only take 15 seconds to cast their vote, which will help the nation move towards ‘Viksit Bharat’.

Speaking to ANI, BJP’s Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat candidate, Madhavi Latha, said, “We do not threaten anyone. We do not say to remove the police force for 15 minutes. We just want to say that you should take 15 seconds instead of 15 minutes and cast your vote. Do not go to attend provocative speeches. If you want to move towards ‘Viksit Bharat’. Go and cast your vote. This is what she (Navneet Rana) meant.”

Rana further targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, saying that when Congress used to work on the directions of Pakistan when they were in power.

“Everyone knows that Rahul Gandhi is receiving messages of love from Pakistan. As long as the Congress was in power, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress worked on the directions of Pakistan. I am honest towards the soil of India. Coming from the kingdom of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, when we enter the field, we do not need to think about how to take out the sword,” she said.

Earlier this month, former Pakistan Minister Fawad Chaudhry praised Rahul Gandhi saying that he has a socialist ideology inside him.

“Rahul Gandhi like his great Grandfather Jawaharlal has a socialist in him, problems of India and Pak are so same even after 75 years of partition, Rahul sahib in his last night speech said 30 or 50 families Owns 70 per cent of India wealth so is in Pakistan where only a business club called Pak Buisness Council and few real estate Seth’s own 75% of Pak wealth.. fair distribution of wealth is the biggest challenge of capitalism,” Fawad Chaudhry posted on X.

Voting for all 17 seats in Telangana will take place on May 13 in the fourth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

New Delhi:

A provocative statement 11 years ago by AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi – the infamous “if police are removed for 15 minutes…” remark seen as a threat to Hindus – has spawned an equally shocking “… it will take us only 15 seconds” reply by BJP leader Navneet Rana, while campaigning for Madhavi Latha, the party’s candidate for the Hyderabad Lok Sabha dominated by Mr Owaisi’s brother, Asaduddin Owaisi.

Ms Rana, a former independent MP from Maharashtra’s Amravati, referred to the 2013 swipe by Akbaruddin Owaisi, and said, “The younger brother said, ‘Remove police for 15 minutes so we can show what we can do’. I want to tell him, ‘It might take you 15 minutes… but it will only take us 15 seconds… “

And in other comments also seen as being in poor taste, she declared Madhavi Latha will “definitely stop Hyderabad from turning into Pakistan” and claimed that anyone voting for either the Congress or the AIMIM would simply be voting in favour of Pakistan.

15 सेकंद लगेगा @AkbarOwaisi_MIM@asadowaisipic.twitter.com/TfEmWhvArX

— Navnit Ravi Rana (Modi Ka Parivar) (@navneetravirana) May 8, 2024

“If you vote for AIMIM and Congress, it goes directly to Pakistan. The kind of ‘AIMIM prem (love)’ and ‘Rahul prem’ Pakistan is showing… Just like Congress that governed country on signals from Pak… the same Pak is today saying they ‘love Congress and AIMIM’.”

A 39-second video clip of the rant by Ms Rana was posted on her X (formerly Twitter) account, and the Owaisi brothers were tagged in the post. The older Owaisi, never one to back down from a fight, responded immediately and dared Ms Rana to follow through.

READ | Asaduddin Owaisi’s “Muslims Use Condoms Most” Reply To PM’s Jab

“I’m telling (Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji… give her the 15 seconds. What will she do? Give her the 15 seconds… give her an hour even. We too want to see what they will do. Is there any humanity left in them? Who is scared? We are ready… if someone is making an open call (like this) then so be it. Do it. Who is stopping you?” Mr Owaisi told reporters.

#WATCH | Hyderabad, Telangana: On BJP leader Navnit Ravi Rana’s “15 seconds lagenge” remark in Hyderabad, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi says, “I tell Modi ji – give her 15 seconds. What will you do?…Give her 15 seconds, give her 1 hour. We too want to see if you have any… pic.twitter.com/e1uD3M6nhl

— ANI (@ANI) May 9, 2024

The face-off between Ms Rana (and Ms Latha) and Asaduddin Owaisi underlines the high-tension fight for the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat, which has been held by the AIMIM leader since 2004, and was the bastion of his father, Salahuddin Owaisi from 1984.

The BJP has never won here; in 2019 the party fielded Bhagavanth Rao, who got less than 236,000 votes while Mr Owaisi polled over half a million and a 64 per cent of vote share.

Mr Owaisi has already had one ugly confrontation with his rival for this election.

READ | “Where Did Mosque Come From?”: BJP Candidate On “Imaginary Arrow” Row

Last month, during a Ram Navami rally in Hyderabad, the BJP’s Madhavi Latha pretended to draw and fire an arrow while near a mosque. The gesture was widely condemned, with Mr Owaisi calling it “vulgar, obscene, and provocative”.

Ms Latha later posted a statement on X and professed to apologise, saying, “If anyone’s feelings are hurt”. However, she also claimed the video circulated is “incomplete”. She also spoke to news agency PTI, claiming a “conspiracy against us (the BJP) … because we work well with both Hindu and Muslim brothers” and demanded “where did the mosque come from?”

READ | “People Of Hyderabad Not Cattle”: Owaisi On PM’s “Lease” Remark

The Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat has seven Assembly segments, of which six are held by the AIMIM.

Voting takes place on May 13, with the other 16 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana.

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