AIMIM will contest all elections in Maharashtra: Owaisi

Aurangabad: All India Majlis-e-Itthehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Chief Asadudhin Owaisi on Saturday announced that his party will contest all elections in Maharashtra. The AIMIM supremo also said that his party is also open for alliances from here onwards.

On a two-day tour of Aurangabad, Owaisi also criticised the Narendra Modi government on what he claimed was the inept handling of the China and Kashmir issues.

"China is on your ground but the government refuses (to acknowledge it). If nobody is holding onto your land, then why have these rounds of talks (between the two nations). The BJP should take a team of MP's to Ladakh and show the ground reality then. But the BJP and RSS are quiet on this issue," he alleged.

He also said moves like doing away with the provisions of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir had done nothing to change the ground situation in the restive region, as jawans and civilians were being killed in terror attacks.

Queried on the possibility of a national alliance against the BJP, Owaisi said he was not an astrologer to say anything now about the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

"I don't have any idea who will be the face of it (such an alliance). I cannot say anything about the Uttar Pradesh polls either. Let the model code come in, then I will talk," he added.

Meanwhile, reports from UP suggests that the AIMIM is quietly drifting away from the much-publicised Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha (BSM) -- an alliance of smaller parties led by Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbharin which was formed ahead of upcoming Assembly Elections.

While the morcha had won a new friend in the Samajwadi Party last week, AIMIM was not invited to a mahapanchayat in UP's Mau district on Wednesday where Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav attended.

AIMIM has also expressed its anger when Rajbhar, earlier this month, said that he was no longer averse to an alliance with the BJP again. The wedge widened after Rajbhar allied with SP since Owaisi's disdain for Akhilesh Yadav is well known.

Quoting a senior AIMIM leader, IANS reports that the party might leave the Morcha because it will not ally with the Akhilesh Yadav-led party.

Earlier, AIMIM was one of the first parties that came together with SBSP on the Morcha and Asaduddin Owaisi and Om Prakash Rajbhar even started touring the state together.

SBSP general secretary and Om Prakash Rajbhar's son Arvind Rajbhar, meanwhile, said that the AIMIM was never formally a part of the Morcha.

The SBSP had contested the 2017 state elections as a BJP ally and Rajbhar was appointed a minister in the BJP government. He quit the alliance before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections after his outfit failed to reach an understanding with the BJP on seat-sharing.