Lucknow/Hyderabad
A day immediately after the Aam Aadmi Party’s official announcement to enter the electoral fray of Uttar Pradesh in 2022, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi landed in Lucknow to sound the poll bugle.
Owaisi met an ex-BJP ally — Om Prakash Rajbhar of the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party — on Wednesday. This meeting is becoming viewed as the starting of the consolidation of smaller outfits in the state. Owaisi and Arvind Kejriwal’s presence will additional fragment the UP Assembly contest. Four massive player — BJP, SP, BSP and Congress — are currently in the fray.
After winning 5 seats in the current Bihar Assembly election, AIMIM hopes to make gains in UP. The celebration had drawn a blank in 2017.
“The ward that CM Adityanath visited (to address a poll rally), the BJP lost all 3 seats… Where Amit Shah went, the BJP lost the seat. I am not here to change names, I am here to win hearts,” Owaisi took a dig at Yogi Adityanath who had promised in Hyderabad he would transform the city’s name to Bhagyanagar if BJP won the Hyderabad civic election.
Ramesh Dixit, a political analyst, says, “AAP will not be able to do much in UP, but Owaisi will surely make a difference in 2022 poll. His party will dent the vote-bank of Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party considerably. It will eventually help the BJP.”
A senior journalist primarily based in Lucknow says, “MIM is believed to be the BJP’s B team. Owaisi will polarise the election. It will likely contest Muslim-dominated seats and throw surprises.”
Athar Hussain, yet another political analyst, thinks otherwise. “Owaisi might get a fraction of votes but I don’t think the Muslim voters who have traditionally been voting for the SP, BSP or Congress will switch loyalty to a Hyderabad-based party.”
Owaisi slams Mamata
Lashing out at West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee more than her remarks that the BJP was ‘spending money’ to bring in a celebration from Hyderabad to her state to divide Hindu-Muslim votes, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi stated Muslim voters have been not her ‘jagir’ (house). Rebutting Banerjee’s comments, Owaisi tweeted, “So far you’ve only dealt with obedient Mir Jaffers & Sadiqs. You don’t like Muslims who think & speak for themselves. You’ve insulted our voters in Bihar. Remember what happened to parties in Bihar that kept blaming their failures on “vote cutters”…”