Assaduddin Owaisi lauds Andra CM's decision to oppose NRC

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday lauded Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's decision to oppose the National Register of Citizen (NRC).

"He (Jagan Mohan Reddy) is my friend. I am thankful to the YSR Congress Party-led government for taking this decision. This was a policy decision taken by the chief minister," Owaisi said.

Amid major protests against the NRC and Citizenship Amendment Act, Reddy had on Monday announced that the NRC will not be implemented in Andhra Pradesh.

AIMIM chief said that Reddy is running a state government and has to consider a lot of things before taking any decision.

"I would like to urge them to look into National Population Register (NPR), which is also a part of NRC," he said.

Several other chief ministers have also clarified their stand against the implementation of NRC in their state including, Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Naveen Patnaik in Odisha, Amarinder Singh in Punjab, Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh, Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan and Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala.

Meanwhile, Owaisi also congratulated Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leaders for its alliance's victory in the state assembly elections.

The JMM-led alliance, which also consisted of Congress and Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD), won a comfortable majority with 47 seats in the 81-member Jharkhand assembly.

Owaisi's AIMIM, however, failed to win even a single of the eight seats it contested in the assembly elections.

( With inputs from ANI )