Owaisi Is A Repeat Offender: Sambit Patra 

HYDERABAD: BJP today hit out at AIMIM or All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi for "playing minority politics" and said it saw him as 'neo-Jinnah'.

"As far as Asaduddin Owaisi is concerned, he is in the mainstream polity of India, so with utmost respect I say, that in the present political scenario, I see him as a neo-Jinnah," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said referring to Pakistan's founding father Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Also Read: Kumaraswamy Offered MIM A Seat: Owaisi

"Because, this policy of playing a minority politics, this policy of instigating our Muslim brothers and sisters to breakaway from the mainstream is a very dangerous one and he (Owaisi) is a repeat offender," Mr Patra told reporters in Hyderabad.

He was responding to a question on the Hyderabad Lok Sabha member's reported comments that Muslims should only vote for Muslims.

Also Read: Owaisi Backs Centre, Rejects UN Human Rights Report On Kashmir

The BJP spokesperson said Mr Owaisi had earlier spoken in the context of row over "Padmavat' film, stating that Muslims should learn from the episode and unitedly oppose 'triple talaq'.

On another occasion, the MIM president had sought to provide legal aid to alleged supporters of ISIS, Mr Patra said.

"So, of course, in the name of religion, time and again he (Owaisi) is trying to divide the society" but people "are not going to follow suit of any neo-Jinnah. Jinnah is forgotten. Jinnah is hated", he claimed. (PTI)