Following Akhilesh Yadav's decision not to pursue a pre-poll arrangement with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi urged members of the Muslim community to build political pathways independent of the Samajwadi Party rather than continuing to look to its leadership for support.
At a public gathering in Azamgarh on Sunday evening, Owaisi contended that Muslim communities had supported the Yadav political family across multiple generations, yet neither Mulayam Singh Yadav nor Akhilesh Yadav had elevated any member of that community into a leadership position, with the community's backing treated primarily as a means of securing electoral power.
Owaisi conveyed that no person need remain subordinate to another, and that each individual must take charge of their own path — adding, in his own words, that personal ambition held no place for him, only the pursuit of fair treatment and rightful entitlements for the people he represents.
Addressing his words to Akhilesh Yadav, Owaisi put forward the position that young voters hold their primary allegiance to their own families rather than to the SP chief, before calling on Muslims to build autonomous political platforms instead of depending on established parties for their voice in governance — a message he coupled with a push for AIMIM workers to prepare themselves for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and secure victories for the party's candidates.
A coalition proposal put forward by Owaisi — aimed at keeping the BJP out of power in Uttar Pradesh — did not gain traction with Akhilesh Yadav, who chose not to take up the SP's side of the arrangement.
At the rally in Azamgarh, Owaisi put forward a pointed query about why the SP administration had not acted to grant university status to Shibli National College in that district. He argued that the SP's hold over two parliamentary seats, ten assembly constituencies, and the zila panchayat presidency in Azamgarh had yielded little for residents — pointing to roads still in disrepair, an airport that has yet to open to traffic, and fee burdens persisting for students enrolled at colleges under Maharaja Suhel Dev University — while characterising Akhilesh's engagement with the area as amounting to little more than a Rs 5 lakh contribution to Shibli Academy.
Weighing in on the public back-and-forth between Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Akhilesh Yadav over which Assembly seat each should contest, Owaisi put forward the view that a truer measure of their individual support would come from Adityanath standing in Sambhal and Yadav putting his name on the ballot in Gorakhpur.
Speaking about the gatherings at Jantar Mantar, he argued that arrests and curbs placed on young demonstrators would do nothing to diminish their resolve. Asserting that he stood among the earliest voices against the 2024 Election Commission legislation, he noted that most of his fellow opposition parliamentarians had not taken a comparable public position at the time.
Speaking at the public gathering, Owaisi put forward a series of objections against both the central and state governments, covering alleged extrajudicial killings, the demolition of properties tied to Muslim communities — among them homes, shops, mosques, and graveyards — and what he characterised as those governments' ties to business interests.
