AIMIM's Akbaruddin Owaisi: Of Hyderabadi salaams and incendiary speeches

During this election, though there is no real contender against him, he campaigned continuously, from 8 am to 11 pm

Akbaruddin Owaisi – four-time MLA, and floor leader of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AlMIM) in the Telangana Assembly – has been in the national eye for about ten years. In his home town of Hyderabad, however, he has commanded attention, suspicion and admiration for almost three decades.

In April 2011, Akbaruddin was attacked while traveling in his constituency, Chandrayangutta. In 2012, an inflammatory speech in the town of Nirmal put him in jail for 40 days, booked for hate speech. In 2007, he had threatened the Bangladeshi writer Taseema Nasreen. Nasreen was then assaulted by AIMIM legislators while she was