Daijiworld Media Network (SR)

Hyderabad, Jun 10: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday claimed that Congress president Rahul Gandhi won Kerala's Wayanad due to its 40 per cent Muslim population.

Addressing a public gathering in Hyderabad Owaisi asked "The Congress leader [Rahul Gandhi] himself lost in Amethi and received victory in Wayanad. Isn't the 40% population of Wayanad Muslim?"

Being optimistic about Muslims getting a place in this country, Owaisi said the community do not want to depend on anybody to survive. "On 15 August 1947, our elders thought that this will be a new India. That India will be of Azad, Gandhi, Nehru, Ambedkar and of crores of their followers. I am still hopeful of getting our place in the country. We don't want alms, we don't want to survive on your alms," Owaisi said.

"You don't want to leave Congress and other secular parties. But remember they don't have strength, thinking, they don't work hard...Where did BJP lose? In Punjab. Who's there? Sikhs. Why did BJP lose anywhere else in India? Due to regional parties there and not Congress. The Congress leader himself lost in Amethi and received victory in Wayanad. Isn't the 40 per cent population of Wayanad Muslim?" Owaisi added.

In the recent Loksabha polls, Rahul Gandhi won by 4,31,063 votes against PP Suneer of Left Democratic Front (LDF) from Wayanad constituency while losing from Gandhi's family bastion of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh to Union minister Smriti Irani.