Asaduddin Owaisi calls Congress-TDP alliance 'East India Company of 2018'

Sangareddy (Telangana): In the run-up to the assembly elections in Telangana, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMM) president Asaduddin Owaisi launched a scathing attack at the Congress-Telugu Desam Party (TDP) alliance, terming it as the 'East India Company of 2018'.

"Now will (Chandrababu) Naidu save Telangana's composite culture or will the Congress save it? This is not 'Mahakutami' (grand alliance); it is the East India Company of 2018," Owaisi said at an event in Sangareddy on Sunday.

Furthermore, Owaisi asserted that the people of Telangana will decide the fate of the state, and not those living elsewhere.

"Now will Naidu who is in Vijayawada or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) which in Nagpur, or the Congress which is in Delhi, decide the fate Telangana and its people? The fate of Telangana will be decided by its people here in Sangareddy itself. This is your state and you will decide its fate and not somebody who is Vijayawada, Nagpur or Delhi. For this, it is necessary to send this modern East India Company back to where they belong on December 7," he quipped.

On November 1, Naidu and Congress president Rahul Gandhi had announced their alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the upcoming state and general elections.

Assembly election in Telangana is scheduled on December 7 to elect representatives of 119 constituencies. The counting of votes will take place on December 11.