"It would be suffocating there": Asaduddin Owaisi on not being invited to join INDIA bloc

Asaduddin Owaisi, the chief of AIMIM claimed that he has requested Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to build a 'third front' with various parties that are not members of the INDIA opposition alliance.

On not being invited to join the INDIA alliance, he said he doesn't care about it. 

Addressing the media, AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi says, "...We are not in the INDIA Alliance and I don't care about it... It would be suffocating there. Why are they not standing up against the BJP on their ideology... They told that if they give us a ticket, they won't get a Hindu vote... I am saying this openly, they say this behind closed walls. Rahul Gandhi lost in Amethi but won in Wayanad. Asaduddin Owaisi did not contest elections there. I did not have any deal with the BJP there. He won from Wayanad because there is the Muslim League there. Muslim League saved him from drowning..."

Also Read: Telangana: Congress depicts Sonia Gandhi as a goddess in posters, BJP calls it utterly 'shameful'

Further, the AIMIN chief also said, "My orientation does not accept that Muslims should not contest elections. I think Muslims should participate in elections... You won't win until you fight. Even if you lose, standing up in elections is necessary... You will never win if you don't contest elections fearing defeat. You need to lose twice or thrice before you win... Sectarian politics against Muslims has been going on since 1950, it did not begin in 2014... The environment has been rough for Muslims since the beginning..."

On the otherhand, the AIMIM chief's party leader Waris Pathan had in July said that the "so-called" secular parties which are part of the INDIA bloc are treating them as "political untouchables".