Asaduddin Owaisi Cancels Bengal Visit After ‘No Response’ From Kolkata Police to Hold AIMIM’s First Public Meeting in Kolkata
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Asaduddin Owaisi, chief of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), has cancelled his West Bengal visit after Kolkata Police refused to grant permission for his public meeting in Metiabruz area.
Aiming at ‘Ahl-i Hadith’, ‘Barelvi’ and ‘optimistic’ over a share of Deobandi vote share in the upcoming polls – Owaisi had decided to hold his first-ever political rally in West Bengal in Kolkata’s Metiabruz area on February 25.
Speaking to News18.com, state AIMIM president Jamirul Hassan said: “It is unfortunate that Kolkata police didn’t allow Asaduddin Owaisi to hold public rally in Kolkata. We applied for police permission nearly two weeks ago but till today we have not received any response from Kolkata Police.
“TMC government is scared of Asaduddin Owaisi as they feel that they may lose significant numbers of Assembly seats in Bengal. This is the reason they are not allowing us to hold political meetings in Bengal. Few days ago, TMC workers threatened our supporters in Metiabruz area. My supporters are getting calls not to attend any meetings of AIMIM. I would like to tell the TMC workers that more they will try to suppress us, the more we will be stronger,” Hassan said.
Out of nearly 2.50 crore (approx) Muslim population in Bengal – nearly 40 per cent voters are ‘Deobandi’, while ‘Barelvi’ sect consists of 30 per cent voters and Ahl-i Hadith comes third with 25 per cent. Political experts believe that significant number of Owaisi’s supporters in West Bengal belongs to Ahl-i Hadith and ‘Barelvi’ sects, which jointly contributes to nearly 55 percent of voters among Muslim populations in the state. And this is the area where Owaisi is aiming at to make a ‘decisive’ entry in Bengal’s politics.
The party has already appointed three persons in-charge of Bengal to look after the poll affairs and they are former Mayor of Hyderabad Municipality Mohammad Majid Hussain, State AIMIM president Jamirul Hassan and AIMIM national spokesperson Asim Waqar.
Hussain is already in Bengal and he will inaugurate AIMIM’s first party office in Park Circus area in Kolkata. On Thursday, Hussain will interact with various political leaders of smaller regional parties and also a media interaction on TMC’s ‘undemocratic way’ to stop AIMIM from entering Bengal.
Meanwhile, BJP’s national president JP Nadda’s ‘Poriborton Yatra’ at Barrackpore in North 24-Parganas on Thursday was also postponed due to ‘police permission issue’.
BJP leader Sabyasachi Datta said, “There is some police permission issue and there the ‘Poriborton Yatra’ was postponed.”
Reacting on hurdle before ‘Poriborton Yatra’, BJP MP Arjun Singh tweeted, “The Barrackpore city police has cancelled the permission for today’s ‘Poriborton Yatra’ on Ghosh Para from Kanchrapara to Barrackpore on the instructions of Mamata official. Yatra is postponed, we will move to court and resume the yatra. Rest programs of national president JP Nadda is on.”
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