Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Jan 29: Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) contesting 60 seats in the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections may not succeed in wooing Congress voters, with the party devising a strategic plan to tackle them.

The Congress will counter AIMIM candidates by deploying Muslim leaders in the Assembly seats and also create awareness that "vote for Owaisi is a vote for BJP".

Congress believes that AIMIM, Arvind Kejriwal's AAP and other smaller outfits are all part of a 'plan' by BJP to woo voters away from the Congress and thereby to get a better advantage in the election.

According to a senior Congress leader, AIMIM is most likely to pitch its candidates in Hyderabad-Karnataka region, and northern Karnataka where Congress has a stronghold.

However, he is confident that AIMIM will fail as the same strategy was used in civic polls in Bengaluru as well as Nanded in Maharashtra, but did not work.

During the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections in 2015, Congress leaders had trailed Owaisi with its Muslim leaders visiting wards where AIMIM had campaigned cautioning them of the BJP's plans. To break the Congress stronghold, Owaisi had fielded 30 candidates in Muslim-dominated wards during the BBMP elections.

However, AIMIM had managed to win a sizable number of seats in Nanded and Aurangabad civic bodies in the previous civic polls. Hence, Congress leaders are alert about its influence among the minorities and are not taking AIMIM moves lightly.