Lucknow, Nov 12 (PTI) Azad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) chief Chandrashekhar Aazad rejected allegations on Thursday that his party was acting as the BJP's "B team", questioning the Congress and other opposition parties over their electoral arrangements and contests against each other in different states.
Responding to questions about the charge during a press conference with AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi after announcing a coalition for the UP 2027 polls, Aazad cited recent remarks by the Congress national president, who had reportedly described the Aam Aadmi Party as the BJP's "B team" during a rally in Punjab.
"If contesting elections independently makes a party the BJP's B team, why did the Samajwadi Party contest 70 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 54 in Uttarakhand and 20 in Jammu?" he asked.
Aazad questioned why the Congress and the Trinamool Congress contested against each other in West Bengal, and why the Congress and AAP fought separately in Delhi and Haryana.
He pointed out that the Congress and the AAP contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections together in Delhi as part of the INDIA bloc, asking whether the AAP was a BJP "B team" then or became one later.
Aazad also referred to the 2023 local body elections, asking why the Samajwadi Party contested those polls in alliance with his party if it now questioned its political intentions.
He said his party is contesting elections to address the concerns of its own people, alleging that other parties often remained silent when members of the marginalised communities faced violence or injustice.
"Today, we are fighting for our own people and to find solutions to their problems, because not a word comes from your side when their lives are lost," he said.
Owaisi announced that Aazad would be the chief ministerial face of the newly formed Samajik Parivartan Morcha for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
