The curious case of BRS and AIMIM relationship

 J DEEPAK   I hyderabad

This brought back memories of the bonhomie and “unofficial friendship” between both the parties from 2014-23 during the tenor of BRS government and makes one wonder what could have gone wrong between them. There were a number of occasions where leaders of both parties publicly praised each other. Way back in 2017, Akbaruddin Owaisi who was the party floor leader in Assembly that time also, praised KCR to the skies.

Claiming that no Chief Minister of the erstwhile united sate had generously implemented welfare schemes for the minorities like the way he was doing now, the AIMIM second-in-command lauded that KCR had been treating people of all religions equally. He also lauded the CM’s initiative for renovating the Mecca Masjid. The same year, his brother and MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi was all praise for KCR for introducing exclusive minority residential schools in all the constituencies.

In 2018, after the results to the assembly elections in which BRS (TRS at that time) swept winning 88 out of 119 seats, Owaisi, in his first press conference did not forget to say, “I told you so”. He heaped praises on the TRS supremo and acknowledged K Chandrasekhar Rao’s ambition of playing a major role in national politics.

During the campaigning for the 2019 general elections, Asaduddin Owaisi once again praised KCR to the skies. He said that KCR was a bigger Hindu than Narendra Modi. He even said that KCR had all the qualities to become the countries Prime Minister. 

In 2022, Asaduddin Owaisi thanked KCR for accepting his recommendation to celebrate September 17 as ‘National Integration Day’ instead of ‘Telangana Liberation Day”. He even praised KCR during his visit to Bihar in 2023 saying that under his leadership, Telangana achieved a very impressive gross state domestic product despite being landlocked. Even during the 2023 elections, he appealed to Muslims to vote for BRS in the seats where AIMIM did not contest.

KCR also reciprocated and praised Asaduddin Owaisi on multiple occasions. He described AIMIM as a “friendly party” of TRS/BRS. After the 2018 election results, he said in a press conference that he discussed with Asaduddin Owaisi in depth about the position of religious minorities in the country. In 2022 also he acknowledged that Akbaruddin wanted to project himself as the ”face of Muslims in the country”.

While AIMIM is known to be friendly by and large, with the ruling party in the state, it is to be seen as to how the political relations between AIMIM and BRS turn out in the coming days.