NEW DELHI: Chandrashekhar Azad had dropped ‘Ravan’ from his name a while ago, fearing religious politics would portray him as "anti-Ram". Speaking to TOI days after announcing a tie-up with AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi, the Nagina MP and Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) chief said the same calculation led him to become the Samajik Parivartan Morcha’s CM face, "denying BJP an 80:20 polarisation weapon". He said, “A Dalit CM face will not give BJP an opportunity to polarise the election and derail our larger objective of removing it from power.”
The alliance’s wager is Dalit-Muslim unity. Citing the 2011 Census, he put the Scheduled Caste population at 21% and Muslims at 18-19% in UP. With no 2021 Census, he estimated their combined share at 45%, "influencing 275 of UP’s 403 seats". Azad said: “In politics, one and one make 11. Why should we not try to form our own govt?” Rejecting the ‘vote-katua’ (vote cutter) tag, he cited his 51%-plus victory in Nagina in the previous Lok Sabha polls. “Don't worry about me; worry about the people of UP,” he said, adding, "Those dismissing this alliance will see us emerge as kingmakers in UP."
Without the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), the SP will not repeat its western UP performance, Azad said, pointing to RLD’s eight regional seats in 2022 before it joined the NDA in 2024. He cited the December 2022 Khatauli bypoll, won by an RLD-SP-ASP-backed candidate after earlier attempts to wrest the seat had failed, as proof of “unity’s potential”. The Owaisi-Azad alliance followed "15 days of opposition talks". Azad alleged that senior opposition leaders felt they did not need smaller allies, despite failing since 2017 to translate their support into power. He cited the BJP’s accommodation of Om Prakash Rajbhar, Dara Singh Chauhan and Keshav Prasad Maurya despite past disagreements or defeats.
He also questioned the opposition’s response to EVM manipulation and vote-theft allegations: “Which of their leaders went to jail, faced bullets or lathi-charges, or had their homes burnt?” he asked, referring to the protests and crackdowns faced by his cadre and the Muslim community. During the anti-CAA/NRC protests, he said, he spent about a month in jail and continued protesting despite intelligence warnings, facing pellet guns and sitting through multiple spells of rain.
For Azad, the Owaisi partnership is personal too. When a video of Azad at the recent NEET protests went viral, Owaisi visited the Dalit leader, asked whether he had eaten and urged him to look after himself. “That day, I developed deep respect for him,” Azad said, praising Owaisi’s command of parliamentary debates, constitutional rights and the concerns of marginalised communities.
The Morcha’s agenda includes free, common education till Class 12 and a law requiring everyone drawing a government salary, using a government facility or receiving a government pension — from DMs and secretaries to legislators and teachers — to send their children to government schools. He said lawmakers must experience the public education system and improve school buildings, water supply, hygiene, teaching and resources. “When the children of lawmakers and officials study in these schools, the infrastructure, hygiene and teaching standards will automatically improve,” he said. Azad promised the maximum share of the state GDP for education and healthcare, "filling four to five lakh vacancies", particularly reservation backlogs for SCs, STs and OBCs, and investment in rural industries to curb migration. His agenda includes guaranteed MSP, tackling urea and DAP shortages, clearing sugarcane mill dues and developing rural sports.
He said the campaign would rely neither on corporate money nor on elaborate media machinery. Invoking BR Ambedkar’s belief that “a man can go hungry, but not without respect”, he said Kanshi Ram built a national party through cadre and word of mouth. "Social media offers millions of viewers now." The Morcha's first show of strength will be a November 26 Constitution Day rally in Lucknow, with the slogan “Neela-hara jhanda saath chalega, Samvidhan saath chalega” (Blue and green flags will come together, taking our Constitution along).
