Owaisi warns Centre of protests if CAA not repealed

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) President Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday asked the Centre to withdraw the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and said that if it is not repealed then protestors will "take to streets in Uttar Pradesh and make another Shaheen Bagh".

"I demand from the Bharatiya Janata Party government to repeal the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)," Owaisi said while addressing a public meeting in Barabunki.

Owaisi said that the Centre should consider of repealing CAA in the same manner in which the three farm laws have been repealed.

"If the government makes the law on the National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) then we will hit the streets again, we will make Shaheen bagh here too. I myself would come here," he added.

"The farmers do not trust the government, they say that when the Parliament starts and the bill is introduced, then we will decide," he said.

Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) announced that it will contest elections on 100 seats out of the 403 assembly seats.The party said it is in talks with other parties to form an alliance.

Speaking toin Lucknow, AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi said, "Our party has decided to contest elections on 100 seats. We are in talks with one or two more parties and time will tell, if we form an alliance or not. We are surely in a position to win the elections."

"It is true that in Uttar Pradesh, the presence of AIMIM has become very strong. And today, we are in this position that we will win the election and get lots of votes too, InshaAllah," he said. Uttar Pradesh is scheduled to go for Assembly polls in 2022.

Previously, in the 2017 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party bagged 312 seats out of the 403-seat Uttar Pradesh Assembly while Samajwadi Party (SP) bagged 47 seats, Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) won 19 and Congress could manage to win only seven seats. The rest of the seats were bagged by other candidates.

( With inputs from ANI )