‘We can’t change regimes’: Owaisi on Muslim vote bank, Gyanvapi Masjid row

All India Majlis-e-Ittehad Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday said that India never had and will never have any Muslim votebank and the community can never change regime in the country, news agency ANI reported.

Owaisi’s remark comes in the context of the Varanasi court allowing the survey of Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi. The officials began the court-mandated survey in the mosque which is located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.

“Muslims cannot change a regime in the country. You have been misled. Muslims always thought they were a vote bank. But this is not true, this country never had and will never have any Muslim vote bank,” the Hyderabad MP said.

“In India, there has been a majoritarian vote bank and will be there. If we could change a regime, why would there be less representation of Muslims in Parliament? If we could change the government….then the court order came on Babri Masjid, and now Gyanvapi mosque issue has cropped up,” Owaisi, who has accused Congress, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party of betraying Muslims, added.

The statement comes a day after Owaisi slammed the Varanasi court verdict on survey at the Gyanvapi mosque, calling it a blatant violation of Places of Worship Act 1991. The Lok Sabha MP also said that he doesn’t want to lose another mosque. 

But this is not the first time when Owaisi has spoken on the Muslim votes, a decisive factor that has influenced poll outcomes in India’s electoral politics. During the Uttar Pradesh election campaign, the AIMIM leader had urged the Muslims to become ‘vote attractors’ instead of being vote givers.

“The Samajwadi Party (SP) has always used Muslims for their votes and has never worked for their rights and development,” he had said during a rally in Prayagraj.