Asaduddin Owaisi fails to reduce BJP votes in UP but says ‘our spirits are high’

|HT|

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi could not make a dent in Uttar Pradesh that has voted the BJP back to power with a huge margin yet again although the BJP seat count has dropped. Owaisi was a part of the Bhagidari Parivartan Morcha combine that could not win a single seat in the state. Reacting to the poll results on Thursday, he said his party accepts the "people's mandate". "All political parties trying to hide their defeat by raising EVM issues... it's not the EVM's fault, but the chip in people's minds. There has been a success but it's 80-20. We'll start working again from tomorrow and I believe we'll do better next time," he said. The 48-year-old MP from Hyderabad yet again raised the issue of minorities as he spoke of the BJP: "The minorities of Uttar Pradesh have been used as vote banks only... the BJP won in Lakhimpur Kheri as well, that's why I'm saying it's an 80-20 win; this 80-20 situation will stay for years. People need to understand that... Our spirits are still high."

The killing of farmers in UP - in which union minister Ajay Mishra's son is an accused - had become a national issue ahead of polls. However, the BJP won all eight seats in the district even though there have been protests and calls for justice for those killed.

Apart from the AIMIM, the Bhagidari Parivartan Morcha included the Jan Adhikari Party led by Babu Singh Kushwaha, the Bharat Mukti Morcha led by Vaman Meshram, the Janata Kranti Party led by Anil Singh Chauhan and the Bhartiya Vanchit Samaj Party led by Ram Prasad Kashyap. The AIMIM - which had fielded 100 candidates in UP this time - registered a vote share of .43 per cent. In the last state elections, the party had contested 38 seats. During campaigning, he had also slammed the Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's BSP for "backstabbing" minorities. "SP-BSP is making you feel afraid for the past 30 years and taking your vote. You have given your vote to the SP and the BSP, but you have been stabbed in the back. Your children did not get education, jobs, and poverty became our destiny," he had said last month.

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