Within hours of Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati ruling out an alliance with the AIMIM, Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi announced that his party would contest 100 seats in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Owaisi also said that his party would contest the polls in alliance with Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) patron Om Prakash Rajbhar and the ‘Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha’ floated by him.
In a series of tweets, the AIMIM chief said, “We’ve decided to contest 100 seats in the upcoming UP elections. The party has begun the selection process of candidates. We are in alliance with Om Prakash Rajbhar’s Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha. We have not talked about elections or alliance with any other party yet.”
In UP, Owaisi has joined hands with SBSP and eight other parties including Krishna Patel’s Apna Dal, Jan Adhikar Party and Chandrasekhar Ravan’s Azad Samaj Party. This Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha has announced to contest the 2022 UP Assembly elections against BJP to represent the unheard Muslim-Backward and Dalit voices.
Ever since the entry of AIMIM in Bihar elections in October last year, small caste-based political parties are trying to get the caste arithmetic in their favour in the state, particularly in eastern UP.
Although the Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha and Owaisi in particular have been targeting the BJP, the presence of this alliance in Azamgarh and adjoining districts will directly affect the Samajwadi Party’s performance in the region. With the new alliance coming up with a combination of the extreme backward Muslim population, it will primarily dent the vote bank of SP.