Address rallies at the turf of two of the biggest Opposition parties, draw large crowds, crank up the pressure on those very parties, and keep the door open for a pre-poll alliance. This seems to be the strategy that AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has adopted as he looks to shake up Muslim votes in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the elections early next year.Over the past one-and-a-half months, Owaisi has intensified his campaign across UP, repeatedly addressing public meetings in strongholds of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress. In rally after rally, he has launched some of his sharpest attacks on SP president Akhilesh Yadav and the party’s Muslim legislators and the local leadership, accusing them of failing to safeguard the interests of Muslims and treating them as a vote bank. In the same breath, Owaisi has also kept the door open for an alliance with the SP, saying his party was willing to join hands with other Opposition parties to stop a hat-trick of BJP wins in the state, provided the AIMIM is given “hissedari (political partnership)” and not asked to play the role of a subordinate.AdvertisementThe speeches delivered in constituencies such as Matera in Bahraich, Nazibabad in Bijnor, Moradabad, and Saharanpur point to a calibrated strategy: challenge the SP’s hold over Muslim voters by questioning the performance of its Muslim MLAs in their own bastions, strengthen the AIMIM’s position, and in the process enhance its bargaining power.Owaisi began his campaign on June 14 from Matera, which the SP has won the last three times — first by former minister Yaseer Shah and now his wife Mariyam Shah. The Hyderabad MP announced state UP president Shaukat Ali as the party’s candidate from the seat, signalling that he would challenge the SP directly in one of its minority-dominated bastions. The Shahs, he alleged, had been absent from the area for years and suddenly became active on seeing his party.Owaisi, however, reiterated that the AIMIM did not want the BJP to return to power in UP. “If anyone wants to stop the BJP, the AIMIM is ready to stand with them,” he said.AdvertisementDriving home the pointThe AIMIM chief on June 29 repeated the message in Nazibabad that is represented by three-time SP MLA Tasleem Ahmed. He also urged Muslims to reconsider their political choices after having “tried everyone”. Taking a dig at Ahmed, Owaisi said the MLA was “like the moon that appears only once in five years”, questioning both his accessibility and performance.The AIMIM chief also referred to the Sambhal mosque controversy, accusing the SP of failing to effectively raise the concerns of Muslims. He also took a dig at the SP’s PDA strategy — an acronym for Pichhda (backward classes), Dalit, Alpsankhayk (minorities) — saying the SP leadership had selectively reacted to their issues. Here too, Owaisi repeated his offer of an alliance and spoke of a partnership of dignity among equals.Political Pulse | The Gen Z link to BSP’s plans for relaunching Mayawati’s nephewThe next attack came on July 20 in Saharanpur, which is the constituency of Congress MP Imran Masood. But here too, his focus was on the SP and Akhilesh Yadav, questioning the Opposition party’s strategy of appealing to voters to make “Bhaiyya” — as the SP chief is popularly referred to in party circles — the next CM. Muslims, he claimed, had repeatedly voted strategically for the SP, but had neither received political representation nor succeeded in seeing the BJP defeated. “How long will you keep your own house in darkness while lighting someone else’s?” he asked.In Moradabad on July 26, Owaisi trained his guns on three-time Thakurdwara MLA Nawab Jan Khan. Recalling the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots during Akhilesh’s CM tenure, the AIMIM MP argued that the SP had failed to protect Muslims while continuing to accuse his party of dividing votes. He also asked why Akhilesh had not regularised Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, which faces a demolition threat, during his own tenure despite now raising the issue politically.Must Read | Why BJP is investing 7 months in a Sant Ravidas outreach before 2027 polls“We are also a recognised political party. We also do not want the BJP to return because Muslims suffer the most under BJP rule. If everyone wants to defeat the BJP, why shouldn’t we fight together?” said AIMIM state president Shaukat Ali. Recalling the Bihar elections, he said the AIMIM had sought only five seats from the RJD, but was denied.Ali alleged that parties such as the SP, the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) want Muslim votes but hesitate to accept independent Muslim leadership. “Our offer is for political partnership, not for spreading carpets. There has to be hissedari,” he saidSP and Congress push backHowever, SP and Congress leaders remain sceptical about Owaisi’s offer of alliance, believing it to be political posturing.“Our party has taken a stand on most Muslim issues. Whether it is the demolition of the mosque in Sambhal or whether it is for raising our voice in Parliament for Muslim women to get reservation. These things stick with the community and we are confident that we will get the community’s vote. Bihar has a very different situation because Muslims have not been oppressed as they have been in UP,” said a senior Samajwadi Party MP from the minority community.“The SP does not view any community merely through the prism of vote bank politics, but as equal citizens entitled to dignity, opportunity and representation under the Constitution of India,” said SP spokesperson Nasser Salim. “As far as the emergence or renewed activity of any political party is concerned, democracy allows every political formation to present its vision before the electorate. Ultimately, voters make their decisions based on issues that affect their daily lives.”you may likeDon't Miss | UP polls 2027: Chandrashekhar Azad’s party fields 45 probables, eyes OBC pushHis party colleague Udaiveer Singh said the INDIA bloc leadership would decide the alliance question when the time was right.State Congress president Ajay Rai told The Indian Express that his party had reached out to Muslims “when they suffered”, while “Owasi was nowhere to be seen”. “He has suddenly appeared before elections and is now presenting himself as the lone well-wisher of the community. We do not consider his offer to be serious,” Rai said.AICC secretary and former chairman of UP Congress Minority Department Shahnawaz Alam told Express that after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Muslims in UP were confident of the INDIA bloc forming the government. “The community watches an election very closely. In states where it feels the Opposition parties are in a position to defeat the BJP, they rally behind them. But in places where it feels that the Opposition parties or alliance is not in a position to defeat the BJP, it backs a party such as the AIMIM.”