Congress candidate A Maheshwar Reddy refused allegations levelled by AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi that the former had offered Rs 25 lakhs to cancel Owaisi's Nirmal rally in poll-bound Telangana, as reported by news agency PTI on Wednesday.
Reddy who is a candidate from Nirmal constituency termed the charges as "baseless and false" and said he would quit politics if Owaisi proved it.
Earlier on Monday night, Owaisi had alleged that Reddy had attempted to offer the bribe as "party fund" to cancel his rally in support of the TRS. Addressing a public meeting organised by his party in Nirmal, Owaisi alleged that Reddy had called an AIMIM leader on phone and offered to pay Rs 25 lakh as bribe to stop him from holding the meeting. He also claimed to have recorded the conversation.
Strongly refuting Owaisi's allegations, Reddy dared Owaisi to prove the charge with evidence. "Why should somebody stop someone's rally. Owaisi has already started campaigning for TRS party and now this man says that he is being stopped with an offer of Rs 25 lakh. Why somebody will offer him Rs 25 lakh and why he will stop," he told PTI.
"I want to make it very clear if really somebody had called him or met him or if he has any evidence let him show the evidence. I am ready to take it as a challenge and I am ready to quit politics if it is proved. Is he ready to quit politics, if it is untrue? he asked. They were talking of something which was "baseless and false," Reddy added.
"Never spoke to him. Just to create sensation, he said I offered Rs 25 lakhs. How can I offer 25 lakhs to a man who has thousands of crores of money? Ready to quit politics if he proves it," news agency ANI quoted Reddy as speaking.
The AIMIM, which is on friendly terms with the TRS, has not fielded its candidate in Nirmal Assembly seat, and organised the meeting in support of the ruling party candidate though there was no formal electoral tie-up between the two parties for the December 7 Assembly elections.
The party is contesting eight seats -- all in Hyderabad -- while the TRS is going alone in the polls to the 119-member assembly. The Congress heading a 'grand alliance' of TDP, CPI and TJS has announced candidates for 94 segments.
"Now when this jalsa (meeting) is happening the Congress people tried to buy Asaduddin Owaisi. Maheshwar (Reddy) phoned a MIM leader telling him to stop Owaisi Saheb, (and) will give Rs 25 lakh party fund. I have the recording (of that phone conversation)," Owaisi said at the meeting.
"This Congress candidate wants to buy my party for Rs 25 lakh. Ye log samajthe hain ham apni jamat ka sauda karenge (these people think we do deal for our party) Rs 25 lakh that is the sign of their arrogance," the Hyderabad MP alleged.
Reacting to Owaisis remarks, Congress party's star campaigner Khushbu Sundar told a press conference that the AIMIM chief should come out with proof.
"He (Owaisi) has to prove it. All I want to say is other than coming out with such an allegation, he should have come out with evidence first and then see if Rahul Gandhi takes action ( issue). We don't think that the AIMIM is such a big group that it is going to threaten the Congress party (partys opportunities). It is a very small group and communal group," she said.
She alleged that there was a nexus among BJP, TRS and AMIM parties.
Meanwhile, the BJP Tuesday demanded that the Election Commission take cognisance of Owaisi's comments. "What Owaisi has stated constitutes an attempt in electoral corruption," BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao told reporters.
"Because, the state is currently undergoing election campaigning, Election Commission must take cognisance of this and must enquire into this and establish as to the culpability of the parties involved," he said.
The Congress party's desperation and its old habit of indulging in vote bank politics is once again evident, he claimed. "This also shows some kind of a nexus between the Congress party and AIMIM led by Owaisi," Narasimha Rao said.
In Delhi, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said Owaisi should not be taken seriously and charged him of having a "gathbandhan" with the BJP.
"We do not need to take Owaisi and his party seriously. We don't need to take a party seriously who travels from Hyderabad to Mumbai to fight elections, which tells their own story on whose support, on whose bidding, for what purpose. We do not need to take seriously a party which does the same thing in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and then swears by secular unity.
"It is the strangest distortion and new definition of a unity of secular forces with MIM. It is well known that the closest 'gathbandhan' exists between BJP and such electoral forces. So you can imagine whose proxy is speaking for whom and I do not understand who they are to give instructions to which person and which case on what locus," Singhvi said.
