All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) President Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday, 4 November 2026, drew a sharp parallel between the United States and Uttar Pradesh, citing the landmark Senate victory of Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan to argue that Muslims in India's most populous state must assert an independent political identity. The Hyderabad MP's remarks came hours after El-Sayed made history by becoming the first Muslim US senator.

What Owaisi Said

'An Abdul has won in Michigan; now, the Abdul of Uttar Pradesh must strengthen his own political identity,' Owaisi posted on X, using the name 'Abdul' — a common component in Muslim names — as a symbol of community assertion. Speaking separately to reporters at his party's headquarters, Darussalam, in Hyderabad, he said: 'BJP used to say Abdul makes puncture. We are saying Abdul will now become leader. He will not lay carpets nor be scared of the RSS nor bow before anybody. Abdul will do his job and become a leader.'

Owaisi added that 'the time has come for us to demonstrate that Abdul bows in servitude to no one but Allah,' and stated the community would 'no longer be the ones laying out carpets for others.' The remarks are widely seen as a direct challenge to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s political framing of Muslim voters in Uttar Pradesh, a state where AIMIM has sought to expand its footprint beyond its Hyderabad stronghold.

El-Sayed Victory: The Context

Abdul El-Sayed won the Michigan Senate race during US mid-term elections, becoming the first Muslim elected to the US Senate. The victory drew widespread attention among Muslim-American and Muslim-majority diaspora communities globally. Owaisi used the result as a template for electoral mobilisation, arguing it demonstrated that Muslim candidates could win on their own terms without ideological compromise.

Owaisi on Qadeemi Masjid and Central Vista

The AIMIM chief also trained his fire on the Centre over its reported submission to the Delhi High Court that the century-old Qadeemi Masjid — located within the Krishi Bhawan compound in New Delhi — must be removed to facilitate the redevelopment of the Common Central Secretariat (CCS) under the Central Vista project.

Owaisi argued the mosque predates both Krishi Bhawan and the construction of Lutyens' Delhi, which began in 1908. 'This mosque is a part of the cultural and historical heritage of the country. It was built even before Krishi Bhawan. This is registered Waqf. The government is not its owner,' he said. He called on Union Minorities Welfare Minister Kiren Rijiju to publicly clarify that the government does not hold ownership over the site and urged authorities to take any ownership dispute to the Waqf tribunal.

Owaisi also criticised the Centre's characterisation of the mosque as 'impermissible and incompatible with the secular character of government property,' contrasting it with the Modi government's decision to inaugurate the Central Vista project with a Bhoomi Pooja. 'Apparently, secularism is not offended by the use of one faith's rituals for a public project, but is allergic to a mosque that has stood there even before 1912, long before Krishi Bhawan was even built,' he said.

On Hyderabad Electoral Rolls and SIR Exercise

When asked about Hyderabad District Election Officer R.V. Karnan's statement that no illegal immigrants were found in the city's electoral rolls, Owaisi shot back: 'What will Amit Shah say now?' — a reference to BJP leaders' earlier claims about alleged illegal voters in Hyderabad, including assertions that 'surgical strikes' would be conducted on the city's rolls. Owaisi said the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise had imposed hardships on ordinary voters and that AIMIM had assisted all eligible voters, regardless of religion, through the process.

What It Means for UP Politics

Owaisi's remarks signal an intensifying effort by AIMIM to position itself as a vehicle for independent Muslim political assertion in Uttar Pradesh ahead of future electoral cycles. The invocation of El-Sayed's victory is a rhetorical strategy to legitimise community-specific electoral mobilisation by drawing on a globally recognised precedent. Critics are likely to frame the remarks as divisive; Owaisi's supporters will argue they are a response to years of BJP rhetoric targeting Muslim names and identity. The coming weeks will test whether the symbolism translates into ground-level organisational expansion in UP.