Owaisi to back Muslim parties in Kerala, Assam

NEW DELHI: All India Majlis-eIttehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi has extended his party’s support to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) for the assembly elections in Kerala and Assam respectively.

However, he is yet to take a call on contesting the elections in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal which has a significant 30% Muslim voter population.

Owaisi told HT that he will “pray and campaign” for IUML candidates in Kerala. About Assam, the Hyderabad MP said he has already offered to campaign for AIUDF candidates and was awaiting Ajmal’s response.

Once an ally, the AIMIM and Congress are now bitter foes. Political analysts have attributed that to Owaisi’s move to expand his party’s base outside Hyderabad and have a pan-India presence, eating into the Congress’ Muslim vote base. His latest election slogan of Muslim-Dalit unity has also worried the Congress.

The AIMIM has been open about its expansion plans. After his party won two seats in 2014 Maharashtra assembly elections, Owaisi also tried his luck in Bihar polls but was rejected by the voters in the face of the resurgence of grand alliance led by Nitish Kumar.

His party even failed to register a win in Bengaluru civic polls. Owaisi has insisted that his main target is 2017 Uttar Pradesh elections in which the AIMIM would field “significant number of candidates”. The AIMIM had fielded a Dalit candidate in Bikapur assembly by election in Uttar Pradesh but stood third after the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal.