Striking ahead of time, AIMIM on Monday, declared its first candidate – Dr Abdul Manan – for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls. Manan – an eye surgeon by profession – has been fielded by AIMIM for the Utarauli Vidhan Sabha seat in the Balrampur district. Manan had joined AIMIM after leaving the Peace party. The state’s next elections will be held in the month of February-March 2022.
On 16 December, AIMIM chief Asadudding Owaisi met Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar in Lucknow to stitch an alliance for the 2022 UP polls. “The two of us (Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party’s Om Prakash Rajbhar and he) are sitting before you. We stand together and we’ll work under his leadership,” Owaisi said. A day later, Pragathisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP) chief Shivpal Singh Yadav met with Rajbhar in a bid to ally with him. Shivpal Yadav who was eyeing to ally with estranged nephew and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, said that he received no ‘positive reaction’ from Akhilesh Yadav. The incumbent BJP now faces Congress, Samajwadi Party, BSP, AAP, JDU, AIMIM-SBSP-, Chandrashekhar Azad’s Azad Samaj Party in 2022 polls.