AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi
With the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections approaching, All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) President Asaduddin Owaisi will begin a three-day tour of Uttar Pradesh from Ayodhya from today.
AIMIM state president Shaukat Ali said Owaisi would visit the samadhi of 18th century Sufi saint Sheikh Alam Makhdoom Jada at Rudauli in Ayodhya district and hold a public meeting around the dargah on September 7. Public meetings in Sultanpur and Barabanki respectively.
“Rudauli is a constituency from where Muslim candidates can easily win, but in the last two elections there was a split of votes as the BSP fielded Muslim candidates against SP MLA Rushdie Mian. Now Owaisi will contest the coming elections. One can try to do the same, said Athar Hussain, secretary of the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation.
A local cleric, Mukhtar Ahmed, said, “Owaisi is the only Muslim voice in India who has always raised Muslim issues in Parliament. First, we should listen to him, understand him and then form an opinion about him.”
Owaisi had last week said that his three-day visit to Uttar Pradesh was just beginning and he would visit several places in the state as elections near. “We have to meet the people. We have to get closer to the people. We have to strengthen our cadre, elect our candidates in the UP assembly elections and defeat the Yogi (Adityanath) government,” he said.
Elections in Uttar Pradesh are due early next year.
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