Asaduddin Owaisi, the chief of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and candidate from the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat, has expressed his willingness to support a prime ministerial candidate other than Narendra Modi. Speaking to ANI, Owaisi stated, “I cannot talk about ifs, buts, and possibilities. I had said during the elections that if there is a chance that someone else can become the PM instead of Modi, then we will support them.”
Reflecting on the 2024 election results, Owaisi criticized the BJP’s performance, stating they should not have won as many seats as they did. He remarked, “The atmosphere that was there in the country, according to that the BJP should not have got even these number of seats. If we had done the right work they would have just got 150 seats. We could have stopped the BJP from forming the government and even the public wanted this, but were unsuccessful. But, at least we cannot be blamed.”
Owaisi also addressed the notion of a Muslim vote bank, stating, “One thing is clear there wasn’t any Muslim vote bank in the country and there never will be.”
Commenting on the BJP’s performance in Uttar Pradesh, Owaisi said, “They thought they were invisible in UP but no one is invincible. Will PM Modi run the government with the help of crutches?” According to the Election Commission of India trends and results, the Samajwadi Party (SP) won 37 Parliamentary Constituencies, the BJP secured 33, and the Congress won 6 seats in Uttar Pradesh.
In Hyderabad, Owaisi won the Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 3,38,087 votes, securing 6,61,981 votes against BJP’s Madhavi Latha, who received 3,23,894 votes. During a press conference, Owaisi thanked the people for the “historic success” granted to his party. “I would like to thank the people as they have given success to Majlis for the fifth time. I would like to thank the people of Hyderabad, especially the youth, women, and first-time voters who have given a historic success to the AIMIM party,” he said.
This election marked the first time the BJP fielded a female candidate from the Hyderabad constituency. In Telangana’s 17 Lok Sabha seats, the BJP has secured three seats and is leading in five, while Congress has clinched two seats and is currently leading in six.
According to the latest trends from the Election Commission, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has won 295 seats and the opposition INDIA bloc has won 230 seats. The Congress, which secured only 52 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, has won 99 seats this time. The BJP had previously secured majorities on its own in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, winning 282 seats in 2014 and 303 seats in 2019.
