Owaisi factor creates ripples among political parties in UP

Lucknow: Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM, which is going to contest next year's Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on the promise of creating leadership among Muslims, has created unease in the political parties that so far considered the members of the minority community as their core "vote bank".

Different castes, including Jatavs, Yadavs, Rajbhars and Nishads, which constitute a relatively small part of the population of Uttar Pradesh, more or less have their own leadership, but Muslims, who account for more than 19 per cent of the people in the State, do not see any united leadership.

So the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), led by Owaisi, wants to end the "slavery" of Muslims in the hands of the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress, which had been using them as their "vote bank", according to the leaders of the party.

There are 82 Assembly segments in the state where Muslim voters are in a position to make or mar the political fortunes of the candidates.

Buoyed by winning five seats in last year's Bihar polls from the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region, which gave jitters to the RJD and the Congress, Owaisi has already announced that his party will field candidates in 100 of the 403 seats in the Uttar Pradesh election expected to be held early next year.

The Hyderabad MP launched his poll campaign from Ayodhya



earlier this month and since then, has been addressing public meetings at different places.

AIMIM national spokesperson Syed Asim Waqar told PTI on Sunday that the main goal of the party is to create a political narrative and leadership among Muslims for the progress of the community and a better future.

"Even the so-called secular parties, which were getting the votes of the Muslims, never allowed a Muslim leadership to emerge. The report of the Sachar Committee has made out the condition in which the parties have pushed them to," he said. The opinions of experts differ on whether Muslims, after the rise of Hindutva politics, have become aware enough to create their own acceptable leadership.

The SP and the BSP have accused Owaisi of serving the interest of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by trying to divide Muslim votes and dismissed any possibility of the AIMIM having any impact in the country's political heartland. Senior SP leader Abu Azmi discarded Owaisi as a "vote-katwa" (splitter of votes) who is acting on behalf of the BJP to damage the poll prospects of the Samajwadi Party.

State media coordinator of the Congress Lallan Kumar said Owaisi remembers Muslims only at the time of elections and claimed that  the minority community has traditionally supported the grand old party.