The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) will make its maiden election foray in Uttar Pradesh with Asaduddin Owaisi kicking start party’s election campaign from Kairana on January 13.
Party’s state president Shaukat Ali said that a very large crowd is expected to attend the first election of MIM Chief on Friday. “The party is getting very good response because members of minority community feel that for the first time there is a leader who is talking about the rights of Muslims,” he said.
The AIMIM has declared 11 candidates from Assembly seats of Western UP. For the first Phase of UP elections, Mohd Idris Ali (Agra South), Ahtasham Ali (Firozabad City), Maulana Masiullah (Kairana) and Parwez Ahmad (Koil) has been announced while for the second phase, Junaid Ayyubi (Behat), Talat Khan (Saharanpur), Haji Shahabbudin (Moradabad City), Haji Aslam Ansari (Moradabad Dehat), Israr Husain (Kundarki), Yaseen Ansari (Bareilly City) and Shamim Ahmad Turq (Amroha City).
Party has identified Kairana to start its election campaign with a design as the area has witnessed communal trouble with BJP MP Hukum Singh alleging large scale exodus of Hindus from the area because of persecution by Muslim criminals.
later in September, a probe team of the National Human Rights Commission had found that many families "migrated" due to threats pertaining to "increase in crime" and
"deterioration" of law-and-order situation there.
Ali said that for last 70 years Muslims have got nothing but assurances of better life and political participation. Same was the case in the state too. The current regime made numerous promises but none were fulfilled.
“The BJP and SP are two sides of a coin. The BSP chief Mayawati is over-confident that she could win majority of assembly seats in the state. If BJP comes into power somewhere BSP would also be responsible for it,” he said.
Shaukat Ali said all the candidates are fresh faces in politics but they were active in social works.