West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday accused Asaduddin Owaisi of being in cahoots with the BJP to divide the Muslim vote in different States. She suggested that Owaisi takes money from the saffron party to do the latter's bidding.

As quoted by ANI, the TMC supremo said, "To divide minority votes they have caught hold of a party from Hyderabad, BJP gives them money and they are dividing votes. Bihar election has proved it." In the Bihar election, MIM split the Muslim votes that would have gone to the UPA in a number of constituencies.

In a political response, Owaisi told Mamata that Muslim votes are not anybody's prerogative. "So far you have only dealt with obedient Mir Jaffers and Sadiqs. You don’t like Muslims who think and speak for themselves. You have insulted our voters in Bihar. Remember what happened to parties in Bihar that kept blaming their failures on “vote-cutters”. Muslim voters aren’t your jagir," he tweeted out on Wednesday.

Mamata has been speaking against MIM since 2017 or so. MIM is planning to contest the West Bengal Assembly elections in 2021 in a big way.