However, the news broke out in Lucknow on November 12, which is Thursday, and was meant to be addressed to multiple parties. While for the voters it was about politics coming from a new front, for Akhilesh Yadav and his party, Samajwadi Party, it was an invitation with a lot of history behind it.
AIMIM and Chandrashekhar Azad's Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) joined hands for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections, 2027.
The duo has now launched Samajik Parivartan Morcha for 2027 assembly elections in UP, with Chandrashekhar Azad being their CM nominee and the alliance fighting the election from all 403 seats.
According to Owaisi, it was a well thought out decision on their part, while Azad has claimed that it will mark a paradigm shift in power balance in the state.
The first major event is already planned. The alliance will conduct Bahujan Samaj Maha Sammelan at Mata Ramabai Ambedkar Maidan in Lucknow on November 26, which is celebrated as Constitution Day.
The most important element of the statement was an invitation. Chandrashekhar Azad invited the Samajwadi Party and the Congress to be part of the front.
The invitation is a reverse process as compared to what we normally see. The leader Owaisi had requested for an invitation to become a part of the opposition’s arrangement, while here, the opposite party is inviting the major parties to be part of their arrangement. There is no report of any reply to the above from SP or Congress.
This came after an unsuccessful effort. Owaisi offered the Samajwadi Party and the Congress till October 2 to accept his offer to form an alliance with the opposition, but both refused to accommodate the AIMIM.
The alliance was planned ahead of the announcement, with Shadab Chauhan, AIMIM spokesman, confirming the alliance between the two parties. Azad said, "Whatever it is, you will see," and added that the plan was for the benefit of the youth, farmers, and marginalized sections.
AIMIM and Azad party have distinct foundations. AIMIM has emphasized its politics through the representation of Muslims in politics, whereas the Azad Samaj Party has highlighted Dalit politics and social justice movements.
There is a relatively small constituency of AIMIM in the state of Uttar Pradesh. There is widespread support for Owaisi within segments of the minority community. Azad is the MP of Nagina.
Akhilesh Yadav and Azad have had a history in the past. Before the 2022 election took place, Azad had declared that discussions had failed because SP only wanted Dalit votes but not Dalits in their alliance. Yadav denied the allegation and said that he had offered Azad two tickets.
Azad's party contested in the 2022 elections individually, and in the analysis of the Deccan Herald, it received a crushing defeat. This is the opinion of the reporter.
The AIMIM party has also formed coalitions in the past. It formed a coalition with OP Rajbhar and declared that it would contest for 100 seats, as per an earlier report in Deccan Herald. The reports reviewed did not provide results of the party in the 2022 elections.
The strategy of the new alliance targets a vote bank that opposition parties too wish to reach out to. The dalits and Muslims form a significant voting bloc in most of UP constituencies, and a third front can either divide their vote bank or attract some. This depends on candidates and constituencies, but no projection was given in any of the reports analyzed.
The SP too has its own plan. As per a recent report in Federal, Akhilesh Yadav is seeking an alliance outside of Muslims and Yadavs. The SP and Congress too have a seat-sharing understanding for 2027, but this new front was not a part of it.
There is a lot that is still to be disclosed. In the case of the reports analyzed above, the allocation of seats between the two parties and the interpretation of their 403-seat allegation was not clear. Neither was it known who was financing the front, its symbol or the manifesto of the front.
The reaction of the BJP and the SP to these developments was not forthcoming either.
