This time M-Y combination won't work in UP: Owaisi

Lucknow: The M-Y combination, meaning Muslims and Yadavs voting in concert, will not work in Uttar Pradesh, All India Maljis-e-Ithehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi said on Thursday.

"Keep this in mind, M-Y combination won't work in Uttar Pradesh, A to Z alliance will work," Mr. Owaisi said to reporters in Lucknow before laving for eastern UP's Bahraich city to inaugurate an office of the AIMIM in preparation for the 2022 Assembly polls. Bahraich is a communally-sensitive district close to the Indo-Nepal border. 

Om Prakash Rajbhar, president of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, accompanied Mr. Owaisi in Lucknow. The two had earlier said they'd contest the 2022 Assembly elections collectively with a number of different smaller events, most of them OBC-based, beneath the banner of the Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha.

Mr. Owaisi's mention of the M-Y combination is apparently intended as a message to the Samajwadi Party, which depends closely on the two communities for votes in the State. And the A to Z alliance stands for forming alliances to a broader spectrum of parties.

Through the Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha, Mr. Rajbhar and Mr. Owaisi have been projecting their alliance as an alternative for non-BJP voters.