Striking ahead of time, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has declared its first candidate — Dr Abdul Mannan — for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2022.
Mannan, an eye surgeon, will be fielded by the AIMIM for Utarauli Vidhan Sabha constituency in Balrampur district.
Mannan had joined the AIMIM after leaving the Peace Party.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi was in Lucknow on December 16 and he had met Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar to stitch an alliance for the 2022 UP polls.
A day later, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) chief Shivpal Singh Yadav had met Rajbhar in a bid to ally with him.
Shivpal Yadav, who was eyeing to ally with estranged nephew and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, said that he received no “positive reaction” from Akhilesh Yadav.
The AIMIM has managed to win five of the 20 seats it contested in the 2020 Bihar assembly polls. Moreover, it also managed to retain 44 seats in the high-octane Hyderabad civic polls, which saw the BJP throw its entire poll machinery into making inroads in the elusive south.
While several opposition parties have accused Owaisi of being a “vote-cutter} and ‘BJP’s B-team’, the Hyderabad MP has denied it saying, “It is the fundamental right of my party to contest elections to provide a better alternative to BJP”.
Moreover, AIMIM has also announced it will contest for the 2021 Assembly polls in West Bengal.