Archrivals Congress and the BJP-TDP combine would be leading a joint delegation to President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi sometime next week to submit a memorandum against the TRS government in Telangana for failing to check violence by the MIM (Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen) of Asaduddin Owaisi during the Hyderabad civic (GHMC) polls on Tuesday.
Already, Congress, BJP and TDP leaders have formed a joint action committee in Hyderabad to fight the atrocities of MIM which was in a tacit understanding with the ruling TRS in GHMC. A delegation of these parties met Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan and demanded action against the MIM for the violence.
Interestingly, leaders of these opposition parties from Telangana for the first time demanded the Governor to use his powers under Section 8 of the AP Bifurcation Act to maintain law and order in Hyderabad.
Till recently, TDP leaders from Andhra Pradesh have demanded invocation of Section 8 to protect the interests of Seemandhra settlers in the city.
The coming together of Congress and BJP-TDP leaders has been approved by their respective party high commands. Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi had okayed the joint action, and BJP president Amit Shah and TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu, too, had given their nod to take on the MIM and TRS.
MIM gangs led by its president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi and other legislators had unleashed violence against Congress and BJP leaders in the old city of Hyderabad on Tuesday. Police remained mute spectators as MIM activists punched and physically hit Congress leader in the Legislative Council, Mohammad Ali Shabbir and PCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy.
Shabbir sustained severe injuries around the eyes and face, while Uttam Kumar Reddy was hit and dragged out of his vehicle by a group of MIM supporters. Similarly, several BJP leaders were hit physically by MIM workers hours before polling ended. Telangana BJP president G. Kishan Reddy and senior BJP MLA K. Laxman were roughed up by MIM cadre.
Fight broke out as Congress leaders went to secure the release of their candidate from Puranapul division in the old city, Mohammad Ghouse, from police custody. Ghouse was confined to the police station even as polling was still on. Shabbir and Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that MIM, in league with the ruling TRS, had forced police to arrest Ghouse. Ghouse, a strong candidate in the old city, had quit MIM and joined Congress only recently. The Congress, which was in a tacit pact with the MIM till last year, is now trying to strengthen its base in the old city. MIM which is now in league with TRS is keen on shielding its hold on the old city from Congress and BJP.
Hyderabad police had landed in a piquant situation as the CCTV cameras fixed at polling stations and main junctions had caught the attack by the MIM cadre on the Congress leaders in the presence of Asaduddin Owaisi. Now, the police have slapped cases against Owaisi and Shabbir and Uttam Kumar Reddy too.
BJP senior MLA and national secretary K. Laxman told The Sunday Guardian on Friday that a delegation of opposition parties would soon go to Delhi to complain against the “goonda raj” of MIM and TRS. “MIM has been patronised by successive ruling parties; now the TRS is doing the same. We will seek the Centre’s direction to the TRS government,” he said.