Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM to set up base in Rajasthan, contest 2023 assembly polls

Owaisi said that AIMIM would be launched in Rajasthan in the next one or 1.5 months during his visit to state capital Jaipur.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) party chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday announced his party’s decision to expand its base in Rajasthan. He also said that his party would contest in the next assembly elections to be held in 2023, which would be his debut elections in the state.

“I have held fruitful discussions with some people in Jaipur during my two visits. Our focus is to introduce the party and strengthen its base. We will be working with full preparations," AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi said. (PTI)

“We have decided to launch our party in Rajasthan in the next 1 to -1.5 months. Since we are launching the party in the state, we will definitely contest the next Assembly elections,” he told reporters in Jaipur, news agency ANI reported. However, he did not mention the number of seats from which AIMIM would contest.

Owaisi, who is currently on his second visit to Rajasthan’s capital city Jaipur, said that he would also visit other cities in the state to hear from the people, according to a report by news agency PTI. “I have held fruitful discussions with some people in Jaipur during my two visits. Our focus is to introduce the party and strengthen its base. We will be working with full preparations,” he said.

He said that there was scope for a third front in Rajasthan because the minorities were disappointed with the two national parties, the BJP and the Congress. He also said that his party would focus on Dalit and Muslim population in the state. “It will be our endeavour to provide a voice and political platform to the Muslim minority,” he added.

When asked about alliances for the 2023 assembly polls in the state, he said that it was too early to say anything about partnerships and his party was currently focusing on establishing the state unit.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan is not the only state where the AIMIM is trying to foray into, as the party had already announced that it would contest from 100 seats in the upcoming 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. Earlier in September, Owaisi launched the party’s poll campaign in UP from Ayodhya and said that he had arrived at UP to defeat the BJP. “Our first effort is that the Muslim leadership should be developed in the country's biggest state Uttar Pradesh,” news agency PTI quoted him as saying.

In the 2020 state assembly elections in Bihar, AIMIM contested in 20 seats and won five of them.