Vote for TRS is vote for BJP: Congress

Hyderabad: The Congress party on Sunday appealed to the Muslims to defeat TRS in the upcoming Assembly elections. The party propagated the message that those who cheat the community with false promises could not stay in power. Addressing a review meeting with party workers, TPCC Minorities Department Chairman Shaik Abdullah Sohail said that if by mistake TRS retained power, no political party would take the Muslim community seriously in the future.

There will be no fear of backlash on failed promises and the entire community would only face humiliation, he said. Describing the next Assembly election as a 'do or die' battle, he said K Chandrashekar Rao should be punished for having secret alliance with the BJP and for strengthening Hindutva forces at the national level. He also asked the Muslims to be cautious with MIM, which could enter the fray from many constituencies only to divide Muslim votes. "Any vote for TRS or MIM will be a vote for BJP," he said.

The Congress leader exhorted the Muslims to come out of ‘we are minorities' syndrome. "Muslims constitute over 13 per cent of total population in Telangana State. We have a sizeable presence in almost 40 Assembly constituencies and our vote is a deciding factor. No political party should dare to humiliate us, as it was done by TRS. Realise your strength and use it to defeat TRS for not fulfilling any of the promises it made to the community," he said, adding that the entire nation was looking at Telangana, especially to watch how Muslims punish their betrayers like TRS and MIM.

Sohail also furnished the figures of Muslim population in various constituencies to substantiate the claim that the community had a strong presence in many seats outside Hyderabad. He said besides 24 seats in Greater Hyderabad, which have sizeable Muslim voters, there are 22 other seats across Telangana that have more than 10 per cent Muslim voters. He said that the TPCC Minorities Department has done extensive surveys and extracted data from the official sources like the Census of India.