All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) said it had plans to forge an electoral alliance with the Samajwadi Party in the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
AIMIM state president Shaukat Ali said, "We have never said that AIMIM will go for alliance with Samajwadi Party if Akhilesh Yadav makes a Muslim leader as deputy chief minister if the party comes into power in Uttar Pradesh.”
"We said that SP had got 20 per cent of Muslim votes in the previous elections and came to power but they did not make any Muslim as deputy chief minister," he said.
Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday had said that if SP chief Akhilesh Yadav agreed to make any Muslim MLA as the deputy chief minister in Uttar Pradesh then he was ready to form an alliance with the party. The Hyderabad MP had earlier announced that AIMIM would contest 100 seats in Uttar Pradesh polls scheduled early next year.
At present, there are 110 assembly constituencies where Muslim voters constitute around 30-39 per cent of the electorate. On 44 seats, this percentage rises to 40-49 per cent while on 11 seats, the Muslim voters are around 50-65 per cent. Owaisi had earlier visited Lucknow and had been in talks with smaller political outfits. He is also part of Bhaagidari Sankalp Morcha.
In the 2017 UP Assembly elections, AIMIM fielded its candidates on 38 seats but could not win a single seat. It decided not to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, but Owaisi campaigned against the Bharatiya Janata Party.