The BJP’s Telangana unit on Friday asked Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao if he could still claim to be secular despite his TRA being associated with the AIMIM which made “hateful, insinuating statements” against a particular committee.

In the wake of controversial statements made by AIMIM leader Waris Pathan at a meeting in Karnataka and pro-Pakistan slogans raised in AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s public address in Bengaluru, BJP spokesperson K Krishnasagar Rao said: “Can KCR still claim to be ‘secular’ by being associated with AIMIM, while that party is making hateful, insinuating statements against Hindus with a communal agenda?

“Shouldn’t KCR as the President of TRS party clear his party position on the ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ statements made at MIM meeting?”

The Bharatiya Janata Party demanded that KCR, as Chandrasekhar Rao is popularly called, clear his party’s stand on both incidents.

“BJP questions why CM KCR has not condemned the threatening statements made against Hindus by MIM leader & the Pakistan Zindabad slogans at MIM organized meeting at Karnataka?” said Rao.

Rao also termed the Congress, the Left, the TRS and the Trinamool Congress as “communal parties”, saying that both incidents clearly establish the real agenda behind anti-CAA protests led by these parties.

“BJP strongly condemns MIM leader Waris Pathan’s unprovoked insinuation through his speech in an anti-CAA rally in Karnataka. MIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi did neither stall Waris Pathan’s speech nor condemned the venomous communal statements made by him,” he said.