HYDERABAD: Amidst intense campaigning for the Telangana assembly elections, AIMIM legislator Akbaruddin Owasi in a controversial statement referred to Narendra Modi as "anti-Muslim' even as he questioned Congress President Rahul Gandhi for hugging the prime minister during a debate in the Lok Sabha. Akbaruddin, MLA from Hyderabad's Chandrayangutta, during an election meeting lashed out at both Modi and Gandhi and urged people not to vote for BJP or Congress.

Junior Owaisi asked Gandhi why did he embrace Modi, whom Sonia Gandhi once called "maut ka saudagar" (merchant of death).

"Your mother called him 'maut ka saudadar' and now you are hugging him. Tell me who's right, you or your mother? How did you feel after hugging the person who was termed 'gandi nali ka kida' by your party," Akbaruddin, younger brother of Asaduddin Owaisi, asked.

Akbaruddin, the floor leader of his party in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, was addressing a gathering of AIMIM workers at Fatima Owaisi educational campus on Monday.

Calling out "hypocrisy" of Gandhi, he said why did he hug the person who remained silent during the Gujarat massacre of 2002 and not the widow of Ehsan Jafri, the Congress MP who was brutally killed during Gujarat riots.

Akbaruddin, known for making controversial statements, was arrested for giving hate speech in 2013.