Owaisi firm on contesting 100 seats in UP polls

Lucknow, Sep 7 (IANS) All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi, on Tuesday, mounted a blistering attack on 'all parties' that have taken advantage of Muslims in the past decades.

"We will contest 100 seats in the upcoming UP assembly elections. We are not slaves and we will work for our own welfare now," he said while talking to media persons.

He said that defeating the BJP was his aim in the UP elections and he was not averse to giving tickets to Hindus from his party. "Why not? Are they not our brothers?" he asked.

Replying to a question, he said, "The government should now say if the Taliban is a terrorist organization. What has happened in Afghanistan does not augur well for India."

Owaisi made a brief stopover in Lucknow on his way to Ayodhya where he is scheduled to address his party workers later in the day.

Meanwhile, Shaista Parveen, wife of mafia don-turned-politician Ateeq Ahmad, joined the AIMIM with her family on Tuesday.

Ateeq Ahmad, who is presently lodged in Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, has been on the target of the Yogi Adityanath government.