‘Ready for alliance with all’: Owaisi seeks Opposition unity to stop BJP’s third term in UP

BHOPAL: With less than six months to go for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has made an open offer to opposition parties to forge an alliance aimed at preventing the BJP from returning to power for a third consecutive term in the politically crucial state.

“We’re committed to making all possible efforts to stop the BJP from coming to power in UP for the third time,” Owaisi told reporters in Bhopal on Tuesday.

“We will make earnest efforts to ensure that there is an alliance which can stop the BJP from coming to power for the third time. We’re ready for alliance with all those parties who think on similar lines in UP,” he said.

Owaisi said AIMIM had made a similar proposal to opposition parties in Bihar, where it had sought six seats, but the offer was not accepted.

“We had made similar appeal in Bihar, I had given it in writing that all AIMIM wanted was six seats in Bihar. But our proposal wasn’t accepted,” he said.

He also referred to the defection of four AIMIM MLAs to the RJD, saying the party had nevertheless renewed its appeal for an opposition alliance.

“We made the appeal in Bihar, despite the fact that four of our MLAs in Bihar, had been made to defect to another party (RJD). I salute the people of Bihar’s Seemanchal region, who helped us those seats again. Still we’re making an open offer (to opposition parties) in UP for an alliance to stop the BJP from coming to power again,” Owaisi said.

Owaisi said he would soon begin an active campaign in Uttar Pradesh, starting with a public meeting in Kanpur next Sunday, followed by visits to Shravasti and Azamgarh.

“I’ll be there every week from next Sunday onwards,” he said.

On the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), Owaisi alleged that its implementation in BJP-ruled states was aimed at targeting India's Muslim population and dismantling constitutional protections available to religious minorities under Articles 25, 26 and 29.

The UCC was first implemented in Uttarakhand and is being replicated in Gujarat, Assam and Madhya Pradesh, he said.

Owaisi alleged that the laws being introduced under the UCC effectively impose provisions based on Hindu personal laws, including the Hindu Succession Act, Hindu Marriage Act, and Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, on non-Hindus.

“Only the Sections numbers’ have been changed, else the Uttarakhand UCC law is being implemented in other BJP-ruled states, including MP. This is absolutely wrong. Imposing the laws of one religion upon another is contrary to equality and freedom of religion. That is why we are opposing it,” he said.

He also questioned the exclusion of tribal communities from the UCC in Madhya Pradesh while Muslims are covered by it.

“Tribals constitute 19-20 percent of the population in Madhya Pradesh, but they have been kept out of the UCC’s purview in MP. On the other, Muslims who constitute merely eight percent of the same state’s population have been brought under its ambit,” Owaisi said.

“You kept the tribals out because their culture and traditions are distinct; their marriage customs differ, and their religion is different. Is our religion not different?” he asked.