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Asaduddin Owaisi says AIMIM set to enter UP, Karnataka, West Bengal and Bihar now

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Correspondent

NewsBits.in

NEW DELHI: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is all set to extend its footprint in the country and it would enter more states.

The party chief Asaduddin Owaisi has said that the Majlis is set to enter more states. 

In an interview, he has said that the party is now going to step into political arena in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal and Bihar. This has been reported in HuffPost interview, here.

He is quoted as saying that, "The party now hopes to strengthen its base in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, parts of Karnataka apart from trying for an entry in West Bengal".

The Telangana-based party has a strong base in Hyderabad and is the biggest opposition party (after Congress' split) in the state and has half-a-dozen MLAs in the state apart from several MLCs, corporators and councillors.

In Maharashtra too, it has two MLAs and presence in civic bodies in different parts of the state including Marathwada. With a win in Aurangabad, now the party has two MPs in the Lok Sabha. The party has an alliance with Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) in the state.

With Imtiaz Jaleel representing Maharashtra and Owaisi representing Telangana in Parliament, AIMIM is slowly getting national. Subsequently, the party aims to go to other states. In Bihar, its candidate lost but got a chunk of votes in Kishanganj. Hence, Bihar is a natural choice for AIMIM. 

However, Owaisi has clearly hinted that now his party would focus on Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal too. There was pressure on AIMIM to contest in several states as its state units wanted to take part in election but the party didn't want to be labelled as 'vote-katwa' or an outfit that led to division in secular votes.

But the result of the Lok Sabha elections clearly showed that the alliances had also failed to stop BJP, especially, in UP. Hence, Owaisi is now likely to field his candidates on certain seats in these states in the upcoming elections. Also, AIMIM will contest Maharashtra state poll, along with VBA.

Shams Ur Rehman Alavi

Journalist for more than 20 years. Had started his career with National Mail in the nineties. Worked as Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times, as an Assistant Editor with DB Post, later Contributing Editor with The Huffington Post, writes for First Post, The Wire, Newsd & several other major publications.