On the Gujarat Assembly polls campaign trail, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi recently read a joke to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the rate of unemployment in India.
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Addressing a public meeting in Gujarat's Danilimda constituency, Owaisi said that he met a youth at his hotel who narrated his state of life using a joke. “Main jis ladki se shaadi karna chahta hun, usne mujhse aa kar kaha ki ‘aapki sarkari naukri kab lagegi? Papa ladka dhund rahein hain’ [The woman whom I want to marry, told me ‘When will you get a government job? My father is looking for a groom for me],” he quoted the boy as having told him.
Owaisi did mention that it was only a joke.
“The boy replied, ‘Modi sarkar par bharosa mat karo, tum shaadi kar lo [Don’t depend on the Modi government. You marry someone else],” Owaisi said, as the crowd laughed out and cheered him.
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Owaisi said that in 2014, PM Modi had promised to provide two crore jobs to the youth every year. “In the last eight years, 16 crore jobs should have been created. But now PM Modi is saying he will provide only 10 lakh jobs till 2024,” Owaisi said.
The AIMIM will debut this year in Gujarat, contesting 14 assembly seats, said the party’s state president Sabir Kabliwala. Currently, the party’s presence is limited to only 26 local body seats. The party is believed to be concentrating on Muslim and Dalit votes, a base that the Congress also heavily relies on.
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The Congress, already fighting a three-corner battle with the AAP and the BJP, has accused the AIMIM of dividing the Opposition votes and called Owaisi’s party the ‘B-team’ of the BJP.