If you want beef then vote for AIMIM: Asaduddin Owaisi to voters in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: In yet another controversial statement, Muslim leader and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi lured voters here by playing up the 'beef politics'.

While addressing a public gathering here ahead of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation election, Owaisi said, “No beef if AIMIM not in power.”

"If MIM is defeated in the election, I am telling you - the members of minority community will have to forget about eating beef," Owaisi said, as per India Today.

He also accused the BJP-led government in Maharashtra of targeting poor Muslims and Dalits through its decision to ban beef.

“A student asked me why “Modi magic” didn’t work in Hyderabad in the general elections. He said “we can even celebrate beef festival here” and I replied we celebrate it every day in our city,” Deccan Chronicle quoted the AIMIM chief as saying.

"They have banned beef in Maharashtra. But, since Narendra Modi took over as Prime Minister, the quantity of beef exported from India has gone up. And if my sources are right, beef export has gone up by 17 percent. What PM Modi doing about it," Owaisi had said after the Maharashtra government banned beef in March, 2015.

Owaisi had earlier met the family of Mohammad Akhlaq who was beaten to death by a mob in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, following allegations of cow slaughter and beef consumption and assured support.