Voting rights of Muslims should be revoked to stop vote-bank politics, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut has said in an article slamming AIMIM leaders Asaduddin and Akbaruddin Owaisi for polarising the community.

In the article published in the lastest issue of the Shiv Sena’s mouthpeice Saamna, Raut, also a Rajya Sabha member, addressed All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Owaisi as “Owaisi bhai from Hyderabad” and said: “As long as Muslim votes are for sale, the community will remain backward and its leaders will become rich.”

In the article written in Marathi, he said it was because of this that Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray had said “voting rights for Muslims should be taken away”.

“Owaisi bhai is doing politics of Muslim votes and we don’t know if it will benefit him or the community, but it will harm the country,” Raut said in the write-up.

The Shiv Sena leader also said that earlier the Imam of Jama Masjid had assumed the right to guide Muslim votes, now Owaisi is doing that, and added that it is an “alarm bell” for Muslims.

Akbaruddin Owaisi, in a rally in Mumbai earlier this week, had targeted Shiv Sena and dared Sena president Uddhav Thackeray to come to Hyderabad.