Owaisi will blow election trumpet from Matera in Bahraich, preparations to break into SP’s stronghold

Shiv Shankar Savita- The political activities for the 2027 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh have already intensified. All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi is going to formally launch his party’s election campaign through a huge public meeting in Matera, Bahraich on Sunday. In political circles, this rally is not being seen as just a general public meeting, but as a big and well-thought-out strategic siege of Owaisi against both SP and BJP in the state.

Why choose Matera? Know Owaisi’s strategic move

Matera assembly seat has been selected very strategically and thoughtfully for the beginning of the election campaign. This entire area has a large population of Muslims, Yadavs, backward classes and Dalit voters. Since 2012, this seat has been continuously dominated by the Samajwadi Party, from where Yassar Shah and his wife Maria Shah have been MLAs on SP ticket. Owaisi intends to harness the local discontent by making the lack of basic development in this Muslim-dominated area an issue. During his visit, Owaisi also visited the famous Dargah of Syed Salar Masood Ghazi, which is being seen as a big message to attract the cultural and religious sentiments of the Muslim society.

‘Operation 200’ and hints of alliance with BSP-Azad Samaj Party

AIMIM State President Shaukat Ali, while clarifying the intentions of the party, said that the organization is fully prepared to field candidates on about 200 seats on its own in the 2027 elections. Along with this, he has also hinted at a possible alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Chandrashekhar Azad’s Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram). If the combined base of Muslim and Dalit votes comes together in Uttar Pradesh, then this social engineering can prove to be the biggest challenge to stop the winning chariot of both Samajwadi Party and Bharatiya Janata Party.”

AIMIM comes to distribute opposition votes

On the other hand, Samajwadi Party has sharply retaliated against this step of Owaisi. SP leader Yasar Shah claimed that the Muslim voters of Uttar Pradesh have now become completely aware and will not fall into anyone’s trap. He alleged that the public knows very well that AIMIM indirectly works for the BJP to benefit the BJP by creating fragmentation in the opposition votes. SP leaders cited the 2022 assembly elections, where the public did not give a single seat to Owaisi’s party. Asaduddin Owaisi has got great encouragement from the success in Seemanchal of Bihar and local body elections of Maharashtra, but the path of UP is not so easy. Political analyst Rajendra Kumar believes that the social structure of Bihar and Maharashtra is quite different from that of Uttar Pradesh. The voters of UP usually choose only that party in the assembly elections which has a strong possibility of forming or winning the government, hence the path becomes difficult for small parties here.