PoliticsUttar Pradesh 2027
Owaisi accuses Akhilesh Yadav of a 'setting' with Adityanath ahead of UP polls
The AIMIM chief told Muslim voters in Uttar Pradesh that backing the Samajwadi Party had cost them, and said the 2027 contest would be "99 vs 1".
Key points
- Asaduddin Owaisi said Muslims had been "destroyed" by voting for the Samajwadi Party.
- He alleged an "understanding and setting" between Akhilesh Yadav and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
- The remarks signal AIMIM's pitch for the Muslim vote in Uttar Pradesh before the 2027 Assembly election.
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday accused Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav of a quiet understanding with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, opening a new front in the contest for Muslim votes before the state’s 2027 Assembly election.
“Look, the Muslims have been destroyed by voting for Akhilesh Yadav’s party, the Samajwadi Party,” Owaisi said in an interview in Lucknow. “We don’t want to lay out rugs; we want to talk about our share.”
He said his party had long held that the two leaders were not the rivals they appeared to be. “We have been saying from the start that there is an understanding and setting between the CM of UP and Akhilesh Yadav,” he said.
“99 vs 1”
Owaisi also dared the two leaders to swap seats: “the CM should come and contest from Sambhal, and Akhilesh should go and contest from Gorakhpur”, he said, asking why they were “performing this drama of ‘you come here, I’ll go there’”.
He asked why the Samajwadi Party had not given university status to Shibli College, and warned of “a huge change that the Samajwadi Party is not noticing, but they will realize it soon”.
He framed the coming election as a contest of “99 vs 1”, in which “the 99% represents the poor citizens of Uttar Pradesh”.
No response from the Samajwadi Party was reported on Monday, when Akhilesh Yadav was in Delhi for the INDIA bloc’s march. Uttar Pradesh’s current Assembly completes its term on 22 May 2027.