Asaduddin Owaisi ready for Bihar poll challenge, vows to teach lesson to 'secular' parties

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday expressed his party's willingness to participate in the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls despite the challenge of the COVID-19 crisis. He mentioned that AIMIM has joined hands with Samajwadi Janata Dal (Democratic) to form the United Democratic Secular Alliance. Owaisi expressed hope that the UDSA will not only defeat the BJP-JD(U) ruling alliance, but also teach a lesson to "secular parties" such as Congress.

Flanked by ex-Union Minister and SJD(D) chief Devendra Prasad Yadav, the Hyderabad MP announced the formation of the alliance on September 19. While refusing to divulge details about the seat-sharing formula, he came down heavily on RJD for accusing him of indirectly helping the BJP. Citing the results of the Kishanganj Lok Sabha seat in 2019 where the AIMIM candidate secured the most number of votes after JD(U) and Congress, Owaisi opined that his party can't be dismissed as an insignificant player. In October 2019, AIMIM opened its account in the Bihar Assembly after Qamrul Hoda defeated BJP's Sweety Singh by 10,211 votes. 

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Bihar polls dates announced

Addressing a press conference earlier in the day, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora announced that the Bihar Assembly election will be held in 3 phases- October 28, November 3 and November 7. 71, 94 and 78 Assembly constituencies will go to the polls in the first phase, second phase and third phase respectively. The counting of votes will take place on November 10.

He stated that more than 7 lakh units of hand sanitizers, about 46 lakh masks, 6 lakh PPE kits, 7.6 lakhs face kits, and 23 lakh hand gloves have been arranged. Furthermore, 7.2 crore single-use hand gloves have been specifically allocated for the voters. To decongest polling stations, the voting time has been increased by one hour. Thus, people will be able to cast their votes from 7 am to 6 pm barring for the areas affected by Left-wing extremism. 

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