AIMIM hurls bribe charge at Congress, Cong candidate rejects allegation
Hyderabad, Nov 20: AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi has alleged that the Congress candidate in Nirmal constituency in poll-bound Telangana attempted to offer Rs 25 lakh as "party fund" to cancel his rally in support of the TRS in the town, a charge denied by the Congress.
Addressing a public meeting organised by his party at Nirmal Monday night, Owaisi claimed that he had a recorded phone conversation of the Congress candidate A Maheshwar Reddy's offer of Rs 25 lakh to a local All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader as "party fund" for cancelling his meeting.
Rejecting the charge, Reddy termed it "baseless and false" and said he would quit politics if Owaisi proved it.
AIMIM, which is on friendly terms with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), has not fielded its candidate in Nirmal assembly seat, and organised the meeting in support of the ruling party candidate though there was no formal electoral tie-up between the two parties for the December 7 Assembly elections.
The AIMIM is contesting eight seats all in Hyderabad, while the TRS is going it alone in the polls to the 119-member assembly.
The Congress heading a 'grand alliance' of TDP, CPI and TJS has announced candidates for 94 segments.
"Now when this jalsa (meeting) is happening the Congress people tried to buy Asaduddin Owaisi.
Maheshwar (Reddy) phoned a AIMIM leader telling him to stop Owaisi Saheb (from holding the meeting in Nirmal), (and) will give Rs 25 lakh party fund. I have the recording (of that phone conversation)," Owaisi said at the meeting.
This Congress candidate wants to buy my party for Rs 25 lakh.
These people think we do deal for our party, Rs 25 lakh that is the sign of their arrogance," the Hyderabad MP said.
Refuting Owaisi's allegations, Reddy dared Owaisi to prove the charge with evidence.
"Why should somebody stop someone's rally. Owaisi has already started campaigning for TRS party and now this man says that he is being stopped with an offer of Rs 25 lakh.
Why somebody will offer him Rs 25 lakh and why he will stop," he told PTI.
"I want to make it very clear if really somebody had called him or met him or if he has any evidence let him show the evidence. I am ready to take it as a challenge and I am ready to quit politics if it is proved.
Is he ready to quit politics, if it is untrue?" he asked.
They were talking of something which was "baseless and false," Reddy added.
Reacting to Owaisi's remarks, Congress party's star campaigner Khushbu Sundar told a press conference that the AIMIM chief should come out with proof.
"He (Owaisi) has to prove it. All I want to say is other than coming out with such an allegation, he should have come out with evidence first and then see if Rahul Gandhi takes action ( issue).
We don't think that the AIMIM is such big group that it is going to threaten the Congress party (party opportunities). It is a very small group and communal group," she said.
She alleged that there was a nexus among BJP, TRS and AMIM parties.
Meanwhile, the BJP Tuesday demanded that the Election Commission take cognisance of Owaisi's comments.
"What Owaisi has stated constitutes an attempt in electoral corruption," BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao told reporters here.
"Because, the state is currently undergoing election campaigning, Election Commission must take cognisance of this and must enquire into this and establish as to the culpability of the parties involved," he said.
The Congress party's desperation and its old habit of indulging in vote bank politics is once again evident, he claimed.
"This also shows some kind of a nexus between the Congress party and AIMIM led by Owaisi," Narasimha Rao said.
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EC demands extra security as unrest grips Bangladesh afresh
Dhaka (PTI): The Election Commission (EC) has demanded extra security for its chief, other commissioners and officials as fresh unrest visibly gripped Bangladesh after gunmen shot an upcoming parliamentary polls candidate and frontline leader of last year's violent street movement dubbed 'July Uprising'.
"The EC has written to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) urging comprehensive security arrangements for the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Election Commissioners (ECs), senior officials of the Election Commission Secretariat," the state-run BSS news agency reported on late Saturday.
The EC simultaneously sought the extra security for its field-level offices ahead of the 13th national election, as two of them came under attack in southeastern Lakshmipur and southwestern Pirojpur by unidentified miscreants after the announcement of the schedule for the upcoming polls on Thursday.
The commission demanded an additional escort vehicle for the CEC, while one such police escort with a vehicle was currently in place for him. It asked for round-the-clock police escorts for the four commissioners and the senior secretary.
The letter said the enhanced security measures were "urgent and necessary," while EC officials said their 10 regional offices, 64 district election offices and 522 sub-district level offices would store important documents and election materials.
The EC on Thursday said the upcoming parliamentary election would be held on February 12 next year, while a day later, Sharif Osman Hadi was shot from a close range in the head, critically wounding him, as he initiated his election campaign from a constituency in the capital.
Critically ill former prime minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) simultaneously asked Muhammad Yunus' government to provide security for all candidates in the upcoming election after the attack on Hadi, who leads a radical right-wing cultural group called Inquiab Mancha.
"We demand that the real culprit be identified immediately and brought under the law, and we call upon this government to ensure the security of all candidates without delay," BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said.
Hadi was also a frontline leader of last year's student-led violent uprising that toppled then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5, 2024.
His Inquilab Mancha was also at the forefront of a campaign to disband the Awami League, which the interim government complied with in May this year, disqualifying the party from contesting the polls.
The government on Saturday ordered a nationwide security clampdown called 'Operation Devil Hunt 2' amid escalated fears over the law and order situation and promised to issue firearms licenses for election candidates for their own security.
Home adviser (retd) Lieutenant General Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said the government had taken steps to ensure special security for the "frontline fighters" of the July Uprising and promised to issue firearms licenses for the election candidates.
He emphasised that the second phase of the 'Devil Hunt' was aimed at helping ensure public safety and combat the growing threat of illegal arms.
The operation was initially launched in February this year following protests over an attack on the private house of a former minister of the ousted government in the northern suburb of the capital, when it targeted alleged "henchmen" and supporters of the now disbanded Awami League.
