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Eye on next year's assembly polls, Asaduddin Owaisi to visit UP today
Asaduddin Owaisi, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief, has said that his party will contest 100 seats in Uttar Pradesh polls. He will inaugurate a new party office in Bahraich today.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi is scheduled to visit Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, where he will inaugurate a new party office in Bahraich district. This is part of AIMIM's plan to extend its reach in Uttar Pradesh ahead of assembly polls in 2022.
Hyderabad-based AIMIM is expanding its presence outside Telangana. The party had fielded its candidates in assembly elections of Maharashtra, Bihar and West Bengal.
Owaisi had earlier announced that AIMIM will contest 100 seats in Uttar Pradesh polls. The Hyderabad MP is in touch with Om Prakash Rajbhar's Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and other political outfits like Shivpal Singh Yadav's Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP), Keshav Dev Maurya's Mahan Dal and Krishna Patel's Apna Dal.
He had earlier visited Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow to take the discussions forward.
Owaisi made a challenge last week that he won't let the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) return to power in Uttar Pradesh. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath accepted the challenge and said his party will form government in the state after winning "more than 300 seats".
The BJP recently won 67 of the 75 district panchayat chairperson seats in the Zila Panchayat elections, which has given a boost to the confidence of party workers.
In the 2017 Assembly elections, AIMIM fielded its candidates on 38 seats but could not manage to win even a single constituency. It decided not to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, however, Owaisi campaigned against the BJP.
The BJP won a landslide victory in the 2017 polls, cornering 312 in the 403-member Assembly. It secured a 39.67 per cent vote share. Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party (SP) bagged 47 seats, Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won 19 while Congress could manage to win only seven seats.
