Owaisi-led AIMIM to contest Jharkhand polls
Ranchi: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has announced that his party will contest the Jharkhand elections, scheduled for later this year.
Addressing his maiden rally here, the Hyderabad MP said the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) "will unite Muslims, Christians, tribals and other secular-minded people", while also expanding its political base in this part of the country.
He, however, did not mention the number of seats the AIMIM would contest in the upcoming polls.
Exuding confidence that the next Assembly will have members from his party, Owaisi said on Tuesday, "The AIMIM would not allow Sheikh Bhikari and Jaipal Singh Munda's struggle go waste."
Bhikhari was a freedom fighter, while Munda had captained a hockey team, which went on to clinch gold in the 1928 Summer Olympics. "We will not just contest elections in Jharkhand, but also send members to its Assembly," Owaisi asserted.
The parliamentarian assured Shahista Parveen, wife of Seraikela lynching victim Tabrez Ansari, "justice would be served in the case".
Ansari, 24, was seen on national television being beaten up with rods while tied to a pole and forced to chant 'Jai Shri Ram' over an alleged theft. He succumbed to his injuries days later.
His wife, Shahista, was here on Tuesday to attend Owaisi's rally.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
