On Saturday (July 3), Asaduddin Owaisi, the leader of AIMIM which plans to contest 100 seats in the upcoming 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly election, said “Inshallah, we will not allow Yogi [Adityanath] to become the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh again. If our morale is high and we work hard, then everything will happen. Inshallah, our endeavor is that the BJP government is not formed in Uttar Pradesh.”
A day after his statement, Yogi Adityanath accepted his challenge and said, “Owaisi ji is a big national leader. He goes to different parts of the country for campaigning and has his own credibility among people. If he has challenged the BJP, then the BJP worker will accept his challenge.”
Yogi Adityanath is known for abstaining from personal attacks on his political adversaries, including Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati. Recently, when questioned on who he considers his biggest adversary, he said, “I don’t consider anyone an antagonist. Both sides (the government and the opposition) are the essence of a democracy….”
Despite initially ignoring opposition leaders like Akhilesh and Mayawati, Yogi Adityanath welcomed Owaisi in Uttar Pradesh and called him a national leader because he knows very well that AIMIM would prove to be a trump card for him in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly Election.
Muslims constitute around 20% of UP’s population and are influential for more than 100 seats. For many of those seats, BJP will be dependent on the division of Muslim votes for victory because the combination of Muslims and Yadavs, on which the major opposition party SP banks on, could harm BJP’s prospects.
Moreover, the entry of Owaisi and his vicious style of campaigning (including the drawing of conservative elements of the Muslim community on his side), would likely ensure that Hindus vote en masse for BJP. Owaisi’s methods of campaigning might result in religious polarisation, and that might help BJP in securing an even larger majority this time.
A few months ago, Asaduddin Owaisi was on his Eastern Uttar Pradesh tour and revealed that the previous government, led by SP’s Akhilesh Yadav, had stopped him 12 times from visiting the region.
“When the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government was in power in UP, I was stopped 12 times from visiting Purvanchal. I have come now. I have allied with SBSP chief Omprakash Rajbhar. I have come to nurture this friendship,” Owaisi told the media. By visiting Azamgarh – the parliamentary constituency of Akhilesh Yadav, Owaisi has sounded the poll bugle against the Samajwadi Party and has given a clear message that he is eying for the SP’s vote bank.
Read more: Can Azam Khan leave Samajwadi Party to join Owaisi in UP Elections 2022?
The SP was first humiliatingly dislodged from power in 2017 and further battered during the 2019 general elections by the BJP. The socialist party was, of course, hoping to revive itself in the upcoming polls next year, but Owaisi seems to have decided to push the SP further down its electoral grave.
Naturally, with the AIMIM hogging a major chunk of the Muslim votes, which would have otherwise gone to Samajwadi Party, is a crisis like no other for Akhilesh Yadav. Like always in the past, by substantially dividing the Muslim votes in Uttar Pradesh, Owaisi is doing his part to ensure that BJP registers a gigantic win in the state.