New Delhi: The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has announced that party chief Asaduddin Owaisi will launch the party’s debut poll campaign on Friday.
The party on Wednesday announced a list of 11 candidates for the first two phases of the elections, to be held mostly in western Uttar Pradesh.
Owaisi, Lok Sabha MP from Hyderabad, will kick off the campaign with a public meeting in Kairana along with the party’s Kairana candidate Maulana Masiullah. As the party readies itself to make its debut in the 2017 UP assembly polls, it is keen to shake off criticism that it is essentially a “spoiler” meant to divide Muslim votes and will end up helping the BJP.
Shaukat Ali, AIMIM state president for Uttar Pradesh, said, “This is the first time we are contesting UP elections. We have declared 11 candidates so far and more will be added later. These 11 will contest in the first two phases.”
“One thing I don’t understand is why we are being blamed for being a spoiler. We did not contest in UP during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections but the BJP swept the state. Who was dividing votes then? We did not contest polls in Haryana but the BJP formed the government with full majority. Who was splitting votes there? It is clear that these so-called secular parties are unable to stop the rise of the BJP,” Ali told News 18.
In UP, the party tested political waters during the February 2016 assembly bypolls. AIMIM fielded a candidate from the Bikapur assembly seat in Faizabad district. Their candidate finished third, ahead of the Congress candidate.
This, Ali said, has given them confidence going into the polls. He said, “When Mulayam Singh Yadav first started the Samajwadi Party, even he was called a spoiler. We have been preparing our party organization in UP for the last three years and we are now in a position to contest elections. Any new party will be called a spoiler because we pose a challenge to everyone. These so-called secular parties have done nothing but use minorities as vote banks.
“Ask SP and BSP to withdraw their candidates and let us take on the BJP in a straight fight. We will surely beat them. We have started doing well in other states. In Maharasthra, we won two seats. In Bihar, we didn’t win a seat but we got an impressive vote share. In UP, too, we will do well,” he added.
Many, however, disagree. According to Rehana Adeeb, founder of NGO Astitva which works for the rehabilitation of riot-displaced families in Muzaffarnagar, AIMIM is unlikely to find any takers in polarized western UP. “For me, the AIMIM is an extremist organization and hence, just as bad as the RSS. For most Muslims in the region, it is a non-player. For common Muslims, the priority is simple – defeat BJP at all costs. They will vote for whoever stands the best chance of beating the BJP,” she said.
“They will not waste their votes since a vote for AIMIM is as good as a vote for BJP. If the grand alliance goes through, they will support Akhilesh. If it doesn’t, they will place their bets on Mayawati,” she added.
Meanwhile, analysts reject the notion that AIMIM will be a “spoiler”. According to Professor Adnan Farooqui from the department of political science at Jamia Milia Islamia University, AIMIM’s main role will be to shape discourse in the state. “To say that they would be spoilers would be to assume that Muslims won’t be able to make up their mind. That is not true. The same was said in Bihar but Muslims voted for the grand alliance. In UP, too, they would vote largely for the SP, BSP, Congress or even RLD. Besides, there are a lot of local-level calculations that voters make before heading to the polling booths,” he said.
“The AIMIM’s main role, according to me, would be to raise issues relevant to Muslims. They will raise issues like depravation among minorities, social justice, rehabilitation of riot-refugees and fake encounters. These are issues that mainstream political parties often shy away from raising,” he added.
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