With eye on 2021 Assembly polls, Owaisi visits Bengal, meets Muslim cleric

By Ujjwal Roy
Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], January 3 (ANI): AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday lashed out at Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for calling his party "B team of BJP" and said that she is responsible for the BJP winning 18 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 general elections in the state.
Owaisi, who was on his first visit to the state after announcing that AIMIM will contest Assembly polls in the state, arrived at the Furfura Sharif in Hooghly district and held discussions with Muslim leader Abbas Siddiqui in view of the upcoming elections.
Speaking to ANI, the Hyderabad MP confirmed that AIMIM will be contesting the 2021 Assembly polls in West Bengal and added that candidates will be announced in the near future.
"I met Abbas Siddiqui. Our party will contest the West Bengal Assembly polls. AIMIM will stand by Siddiqui's decision. In near future, we will be able to tell from which seats our party will field candidates," he said.
On Banerjee calling AIMIM "B team of BJP", he said: "This is their arrogance. Mamata Banerjee is speaking rubbish."
"Are there only Muslims in Bengal and no upper-caste Hindus and backward classes? We will reach out to all voters of the state and will talk about them," he added.
The AIMIM chief took a dig at Banerjee stating that several leaders from her party are joining the BJP.
"She is not able to able to tell people why BJP won 18 seats in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Mamata Banerjee is responsible for it. AIMIM had not contested polls here. MPs and big leaders from her party are joining BJP," he said.
They are not taking my permission before joining BJP, he added.
Speaking further, Owaisi said: "She is weak in Mathematics. In Bihar Assembly polls, we won 5 seats out of 20 seats we contested." (ANI)