Azad Samaj Party and AIMIM Form Alliance to Challenge BJP in Uttar Pradesh Election

Azad Samaj Party leader Chandra Shekhar Azad and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi unveiled their alliance – the Samajik Parivartan Morcha – for next year’s Uttar Pradesh Assembly election . At a joint presser Thursday afternoon, Owaisi said Azad – currently the Lok Sabha MP from Nagina in Bijnor district – will be the chief ministerial candidate. “I can say with confidence… this will be a strong alternative in UP to stop the BJP from coming to power for the third time,” he said, “And I am happy to announce our brother Chandra Shekhar Azad will be its chief ministerial candidate in the Uttar Pradesh election.” The alliance has sparked talk of a third front in UP politics – a viable alternative to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the main opposition – the Samadjwadi Party-Congress alliance. But Chandra Shekhar Azad shot down such talk “…It is not a third front. It is the Samajik Parivartan Morcha. If you understand its depth, you will realise that it is the first front.” Either way, this alliance will have put Akhilesh Yadav ’s SP and its ally, the Congress, on alert, given the Azad-Owaisi deal appeals to the Dalit + Muslim voter base, which together account for roughly 41 per cent of the population and which the SP successfully courted in 2024. In the 2024 UP Lok Sabha election, Yadav’s SP won 37 of the state’s 80 seats to hand the BJP a shock in its stronghold. That win was crafted by uniting four key blocs – Yadavs, Dalits, OBCs (specifically non-Yadav communities like the Nishads), and Muslims. That was significant because even for the 2019 election – when Akhilesh Yadav tied up with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party – SP candidates did not get strong support from Dalit voters. In fact, the BJP then won 15 of 17 SC-reserved seats. Fast-forward five years and the SP won seven of these 17 seats. One seat – Nagina, won by the BSP in 2019 – was won by Chandra Shekhar Azad. Overall, the SP’s vote share went up by 15.48 percentage points in the 2024 election helped by its success in winning over the Dalit + Muslim vote. Owaisi and Chandra Shekhar Azad also tied up for last year’s Bihar Assembly election . However, that alliance flopped; they contested 46 seats between them and won only five – all by AIMIM candidates. That alliance also included Pashupati Paras’ Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party, which fielded 36 candidates but failed to win a seat.