AIMIM to Decide on UP Alliance by October 2, Says Owaisi

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi has set an October 2 deadline for deciding whether his party will contest the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in alliance with other parties.

The announcement was made at a public meeting in Kanpur's Cantonment constituency on Sunday, where the Hyderabad MP made an open appeal to parties opposed to the BJP returning to power in the state for a third consecutive term.

"We do not want a BJP government to be formed in UP for a third term. We have told all political parties that if you wish to stop the BJP from returning to power, then come and join hands with the AIMIM," Owaisi said.

He cautioned against reading the party's relatively restrained alliance messaging as a sign of weakness. Recalling the Bihar election, he said rival parties had turned down AIMIM's request for six seats and had later targeted him and his organisation.

"We will wait until October 2, and then, whoever we form an alliance with, we will announce it on that very day and contest the UP elections alongside them," he said.

Expanding organisational footprint

The deadline comes amid a marked increase in AIMIM's activity in Uttar Pradesh. The party launched its 2027 campaign from Matera in Bahraich in June and has said it is building an organisational network across roughly 200 assembly constituencies — a planning target rather than a final list of seats.

Its campaign has concentrated on districts with significant Muslim populations. Owaisi has addressed meetings in Matera (Bahraich), Najibabad (Bijnor), Saharanpur and Moradabad, and returned to the trail with the Kanpur rally. Further programmes are planned in Shravasti and Azamgarh.

The party's stated organisational focus includes Saharanpur, Moradabad, Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar, Rampur and Amroha, particularly in western Uttar Pradesh, where it says it is strengthening booth-level structures. These districts contain several constituencies where Muslim voters form an important part of the electorate, and AIMIM is seeking to convert that demographic presence into a case for independent representation rather than remaining within the traditional Samajwadi Party-led opposition framework.

Alliance arithmetic

Owaisi's outreach points to a broader arithmetic involving Muslim, Dalit and regional caste-based formations. Sources say the party has kept an alliance with Mayawati's organisation open while preparing its UP plan, and is working on separate dimensions through Chandrashekhar Azad's Azad Samaj Party, which has sought to consolidate Dalit political representation.

His recent engagement with Jat leader Hanuman Beniwal's RLP in Rajasthan illustrates AIMIM's experimentation with alliances spanning different regional and social constituencies. The two parties recently joined hands for Rajasthan's civic elections, with Beniwal publicly projecting a Jat-Muslim combination that many believe could influence Jats in Uttar Pradesh.

Owaisi has also spoken favourably of RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary, defending him after criticism from Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. The intervention is notable because the RLD has a base among Jats in western Uttar Pradesh, the same region where AIMIM is expanding its organisational activity.

Taken together, the moves suggest a strategy of keeping several possible social and regional combinations available rather than committing early to a single opposition formation. The Jat component remains more prospective than established, while the evidence is stronger for AIMIM's Muslim-plus-Dalit outreach and its engagement with the Azad Samaj Party.

Electoral test

AIMIM's challenge is reflected in its 2022 performance. The party contested 95 seats, secured about 0.49 per cent of the statewide vote and won none, with 94 of its 95 candidates losing their deposits, according to election data reported after the poll. Its strongest result came in Mubarakpur.

In the Saharanpur assembly seat, AIMIM polled 8,187 votes (3.15 per cent), while the BSP polled 62,637. In 2022, the BJP won five of seven assembly seats in Saharanpur, a Muslim-heavy battleground where the Congress captured the Lok Sabha seat in 2024.

Even so, the party's significance is not measured by seats alone. Its candidates polled thousands of votes in several constituencies, sometimes in contests decided by narrow margins, making AIMIM a factor watched closely by the Samajwadi Party and others seeking to consolidate Muslim votes.

Owaisi's message from Kanpur was that AIMIM is prepared to contest a large number of seats on its own, while remaining willing to negotiate with parties that want to join hands against the BJP.