Owaisi questions SP MPs' Bihar campaign against AIMIM
Synopsis
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi publicly challenged Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on 27 October 2026, asking why SP MPs campaigned against AIMIM in Bihar when SP itself had no candidates in the state — exposing a sharp territorial rivalry for Muslim votes.
Key Takeaways
Owaisi posted on 27 October 2026 questioning why Samajwadi Party MPs campaigned against AIMIM in Bihar despite SP having no candidates in the state.
The challenge directly targets Akhilesh Yadav , the SP national president and former CM of Uttar Pradesh.
AIMIM won seats independently in the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections , alarming established alliance parties.
SP has historically backed RJD-led coalitions in Bihar rather than fielding its own assembly candidates.
Owaisi's post frames SP's intervention as a territorial move against a rival for Muslim votes , not a principled political stance.
As of publication, Akhilesh Yadav has not issued a public response.
A pointed question from AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday, 27 October 2026 has sharpened the fault lines between two parties that have long competed for overlapping voter bases — and it cuts right to the heart of how opposition politics plays out in Bihar.
Posting on X, Owaisi asked in Hindi: 'Jab Bihar mein Sapa ka koi umeedvaar nahin tha, toh Akhilesh ne apne saansadon ko AIMIM ke khilaf chunaav prachar ke liye kyun utaara?' — 'When the Samajwadi Party had no candidate of its own in Bihar, why did Akhilesh Yadav send his MPs to campaign against AIMIM?'
The charge at the centre of the dispute
The question is precise and deliberately uncomfortable. If Samajwadi Party had no skin in the Bihar contest — no candidate on the ballot — then the deployment of its parliamentarians against AIMIM reads less like electoral competition and more like a targeted effort to suppress a rival for the same constituency of voters. Owaisi's framing forces Akhilesh Yadav to explain a campaign intervention that carried no direct electoral reward for SP itself.
The implication is that SP's goal was not to win seats but to prevent AIMIM from winning them — a distinction that matters enormously to Muslim voters in Bihar's minority-concentrated pockets, who are the primary audience for both parties.
SP, AIMIM, and Bihar's fractured opposition map
The rivalry has structural roots. Samajwadi Party, anchored in Uttar Pradesh with a powerful Yadav-Muslim social base, has historically partnered with Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD in Bihar rather than fielding its own candidates. AIMIM, meanwhile, staked out independent turf in Bihar during the 2020 assembly elections, contesting multiple seats and winning a handful — a performance that alarmed established parties competing for Muslim votes.
That 2020 showing made AIMIM a target. Critics from the Mahagathbandhan coalition argued the party acted as a 'vote-splitter' that benefited the BJP. AIMIM and Owaisi have consistently rejected that framing, insisting the party represents communities that older formations have taken for granted.
Why Owaisi is asking now
By surfacing this grievance publicly on X, Owaisi is doing two things simultaneously. He is pressing Akhilesh Yadav for an answer that the SP chief has not yet given, and he is signalling to Bihar's Muslim voters that SP's opposition to AIMIM is not ideological but territorial — an effort to reclaim voters SP believes belong to its alliance by default.
The timing matters. Seat-sharing negotiations ahead of future state elections in both Bihar and UP are perennially fragile, and any public rupture between parties that share a voter base reshapes those calculations fast.
Akhilesh Yadav has not yet responded publicly. The silence, for now, is its own kind of answer.
Point of View
Owaisi is essentially arguing that the intervention was motivated by voter-base protection rather than coalition strategy — a charge that, if unanswered, could meaningfully erode SP's credibility among Muslim voters in both Bihar and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. The episode illustrates how India's fragmented opposition landscape makes intra-opposition conflict as electorally consequential as competition with the ruling party.
NationPress
27 Oct 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Owaisi criticise Akhilesh Yadav over Bihar elections?
Owaisi questioned why Samajwadi Party MPs campaigned against AIMIM in Bihar when SP itself had no candidates contesting there, implying the move was aimed at suppressing AIMIM's growth among Muslim voters rather than winning seats.
Does Samajwadi Party contest Bihar assembly elections?
SP has not typically fielded its own candidates in Bihar assembly elections, instead supporting RJD-led Mahagathbandhan alliances, which makes its campaign activity against AIMIM in those polls a point of contention.
How did AIMIM perform in Bihar in 2020?
AIMIM contested multiple seats independently in the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections and won a handful, a result that drew criticism from Mahagathbandhan allies who argued the party split opposition votes in minority-dominated constituencies.
What is the rivalry between AIMIM and Samajwadi Party about?
Both parties compete for the support of Muslim voters, particularly in North India. AIMIM positions itself as a dedicated voice for Muslim political representation, while SP has traditionally relied on a Yadav-Muslim coalition and views AIMIM as a challenger to that base.
Has Akhilesh Yadav responded to Owaisi's question?
As of 27 October 2026, Akhilesh Yadav has not issued a public response to Owaisi's post on X.
