AIMIM to contest Gujarat Assembly elections; Owaisi says 'no decision on seats yet'

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday said that his party will fight the assembly polls in Gujarat. He stated that AIMIM has been preparing for the Vidhan Sabha polls since municipal polls in Ahmedabad and Surat.

Addressing a gethering in Gujarat's Bhuj, Owaisi said, "We will fight Gujarat Assembly elections with full strength. However, we have not decided on how many seats. I believe in Sabir Kabliwala (AIMIM Gujarat chief) that he will make the right decision."

The Hyderabad Member of Parliament said that he has come to Gujarat with the intention to strengthen the party. "Our candidate will also stand from Bhuj," he said.

He said that AIMIM has been preparing for the Gujarat polls since Ahmedabad and Surat municipal elections. "We have been working hard for a long time."

Owaisi said that AIMIM will try to win seats in Gujarat. Giving examples of previous wins, the 53-year-old said, "We are a political party. We will fight elections to win. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, we fought only three Lok Sabha seats, including Hyderabad where we defeated BJP. In Aurangabad, where Shiv Sena MP was for 21 years, we defeated the sitting MP. We also won by-polls to the Kishangang assembly seat in 2019."

Gujarat elections

Gujarat will go for Assembly polls this year. The main political parties in the fray are the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and AIMIM. The AAP has already declared that it would be contesting the polls from all 182 seats in the state.

"We will contest all the seats in Gujarat. Now, the people of Gujarat have to decide. Till now people of Gujarat did not have an option but, now they have an option," Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said.

The Aam Aadmi Party's hopes in Gujarat have been bolstered by its result in the February 2021 Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) elections, in which the BJP won 93 seats and the Aam Aadmi Party won 27, while the Congress drew a blank.