Owaisi confirms alliance split with SBSP's Rajbhar; aims to contest 100 seats in UP polls

After Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party forged a pre-poll alliance with Samajwadi Party, AIMIM supremo Asaduddin Owaisi confirmed on Thursday that his party will no longer ally with Om Prakash Rajbhar. Earlier, AIMIM had joined the Rajbhar-led 'Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha' which comprised other parties including the Jan Adhikar Party, Rashtriya Uday Party, Rashtriya Upekshit Samaj Party and Janta Kranti Party. A Minister in the Yogi Adityanath-led Cabinet until 2019, Om Prakash Rajbhar has been a fierce critic of the BJP government after parting ways with the saffron party.

Owaisi remarked, "People don't know the start of my political career. We have gone through such a situation earlier and it is happening now too. So why will our morale be down? Their party (SBSP) has taken a decision and left. We will definitely fight the election and our president has announced that we are preparing to contest 100 seats. In pursuit of this, we are going around Uttar Pradesh. We are interacting with the people and doing public meetings. The organization is strong." 

Weighing in on his probable allies, "We are talking with Shivpal Yadav. I met Chandrashekhar Azad once. We are in talks with many other parties as well. Let's see what happens ahead. Our candidates will be from all sections of society. They will not be just Muslims". Both Azad, as well as Shivpal Yadav, did not attend the joint rally of Rajbhar and the SP chief giving rise to the speculation that they too will opt out of the 'Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha'

AIMIM takes a dig at SP

In a stinging criticism of the Akhilesh Yadav-led party recently, Owaisi contended that it is not possible to defeat BJP with the Muslim-Yadav combination. Maintaining that SP shouldn't take the votes of Muslims for granted, he recalled that the Akhilesh Yadav-led party and BSP could not beat BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls despite being in an alliance. Moreover, the Hyderabad MP again rejected the opposition's claim that AIMIM is the B-team of BJP.

The Hyderabad MP opined, "You cannot defeat BJP with the M-Y combination. You will have to create an A-Z combination. Only then you can give a tough fight to BJP and stop Yogi from becoming the CM of UP again. But if they think that the 19% Muslim (population) will continue voting for them and they will play politics on the votes of Muslims, this will not happen. The situation has changed. In the Parliament election, SP and BSP fought together. Despite this, you could not defeat BJP."