BJP retorts to Owaisi’s hijab-clad PM claim, asks him to make a woman AIMIM chief first

Union Minister and BJP leader Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Sunday challenged AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi to first show the courage to appoint a hijab-clad woman as his party’s chief before speaking about a burqa-clad woman becoming the Prime Minister of India.

Reacting sharply to Owaisi’s recent remark that India would one day have a hijab-clad woman as prime minister, Kumar said slogans could not conceal what he termed as AIMIM’s “zero representation” of Muslim women in positions of power.

In a post on social media platform X, Kumar asked how many Muslim women the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) had fielded as MLAs or MPs and how many held real decision-making roles within the party.

Citing the 2018 Telangana Assembly elections, Kumar recalled that the BJP had fielded Shahzadi Syed against AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi in Hyderabad’s Old City constituency. “She was threatened, targeted and defeated. This is your true face,” he alleged, adding that Syed currently serves on the National Commission for Minorities.

The Union Minister said the BJP had a Minority Morcha and actively groomed women leaders, while questioning AIMIM’s record beyond what he described as rhetoric. He further alleged that Muslim women activists who questioned the Majlis faced intimidation.

Kumar claimed that many Muslim women viewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an “elder brother” who worked in their interests, citing measures such as the abolition of triple talaq, opening of bank accounts, provision of gas connections, toilets and housing in women’s names.

He asserted that the BJP empowered women irrespective of religion, while accusing Owaisi of speaking about empowerment without granting women adequate space within his party or public life.

Addressing an election rally in Maharashtra’s Solapur on Friday ahead of the January 15 civic polls, Owaisi had said a hijab-clad woman would one day become India’s prime minister, noting that the Constitution guaranteed equal status to all citizens, unlike in Pakistan where only members of one faith can occupy top constitutional posts.