Rahul Gandhi won in Wayanad due to 40% Muslim population: Owaisi

New Delhi, June 10: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi has claimed that Congress president Rahul Gandhi won Kerala's Wayanad due to 40 per cent population being Muslims.

Hopeful that Muslims get their place in the country, the Hyderabad MP said the community does not want to survive on anyone's alms.

"The Congress leader [Rahul Gandhi] himself lost in Amethi and received victory in Wayanad. Isn't the 40 per cent population of Wayanad Muslim?" Asaduddin Owaisi asked on Sunday as he addressed a public gathering in Hyderabad on Sunday.

"On 15 August 1947, our elders thought that this will be a new India. That India will be of Azad, Gandhi, Nehru, Ambedkar and of crores of their followers. I am still hopeful of getting our place in the country. We don't want alms, we don't want to survive on your alms," Owaisi was quoted saying by ANI.

In the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, Rahul Gandhi won from Wayanad by a margin of over 4.31 lakh votes, a state record.

The Congress-led UDF swept the polls in Kerala, winning 19 of the 20 seats.

Gandhi had lost to Union Minister Smriti Irani in his pocket borough of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh in the polls.