The Hyderabad-based All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen is now preparing to contest the municipal polls across the state.
The AIMIM, headed by parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi, has been making forays into Uttar Pradesh for the last nearly a decade. It had contested the 2022 UP Assembly polls but failed to make its presence felt.
AIMIM’s UP unit president Shaukat Ali Khan said, "We were called for a meeting at Hyderabad. Whatever instructions were given to us will be followed and we will work on it. Soon we will announce the candidates for different posts in urban local bodies.
Pointing to the incompetence of some party leaders during the state assembly elections in 2022, Khan said, "We lost in the assembly election. There was a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates used to forfeit deposits but see where the party is today. So, it will take some time, we had a few weaknesses and some people in the party had not worked sincerely. This time we will field candidates in all the constituencies.
He said that the assembly election held earlier this year was not just a contest between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party, but AIMIM was also a factor.
Khan claimed that the SP was against Muslims and was a reason behind the backwardness of the community in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
“The SP is not against us but they are against Muslims. If Muslims are in a backward position in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, then it is because of SP. The AIMIM might have lost the assembly election but not the spirit, it will fight stronger and this time we will win more seats than last time. We will fight the election in the whole state from Ghaziabad to Ghazipur," he said.