Chandrababu Naidu was behind police attack on me in 1999: Owaisi

Addressing a MIM election rally in Hyderabad on Monday night, Owaisi recalled that Task Force personnel badly assaulted him on September 22, 1999 in the old city of Hyderabad.

He said former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Congress leader Vijay Bhaskar Reddy had revealed to his father Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi that the police attacked him on the orders of then Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu as he was to leave for Guntur to campaign for the Congress party./ Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu(Image: PTI/File)

Hyderabad: MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday alleged that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was behind the police attack on him in 1999 as he was to campaign for the Congress party. With both Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Naidu and Congress president Rahul Gandhi targeting Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) during their joint campaigning for Telangana polls, the Hyderabad MP hit back at them. Terming Rahul's remarks against MIM as his show of arrogance, Owaisi said the Congress president should know that he took the police blows for his party. Addressing a MIM election rally in Hyderabad on Monday night, Owaisi recalled that Task Force personnel badly assaulted him on September 22, 1999 in the old city of Hyderabad. He said former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Congress leader Vijay Bhaskar Reddy had revealed to his father Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi that the police attacked him on the orders of then Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu as he was to leave for Guntur to campaign for the Congress party. Taking strong exception to Rahul Gandhi's allegation that he had secret deal with BJP, Owaisi wondered how he was nice for Congress when he supported it from 1998 to 2012. The MP also reminded the Congress president that he personally went to jail to meet YSR Congress party chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy to seek his party's support for the candidature of Pranab Mukherjee in the Presidential election. Owaisi also revealed that in 1996 when a man was killed in police firing in Hyderabad and he wanted a debate in Assembly, Chandrababu Naidu deliberately kept the debate a day after his (Owaisi's) marriage so that he could not participate in it. The MIM chief still rushed to Assembly the next day at 7 a.m. to participate in the debate.