Will Owaisi's Hyderabadi biryani make a splash in Lucknavi electoral daawat?

After making a splash in Aurangabad Central and Byculla in Mumbai, the kite, the symbol of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), is flying high. And unless the Mulayam Singh Yadav clan of Uttar Pradesh is able to use some sharp "manjha" to cut it to size, this Hyderabad-based party seems keen to log in to the Vidhan Sabha in Lucknow in 2017. To test waters, Hyderabad MP and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has decided to adopt a village in Mulayam's constituency of Azamgarh, under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.

Why in distant Azamgarh, when Owaisi could easily adopt a "Gram" anywhere in Telangana? Owaisi is clearly making a political point with his application. The idea is to tell the people of Azamgarh that EVM-punching on the Samajwadi Party's bicycle has not fetched any dividends on the development index. Instead, Azamgarh has only earned a name as a breeding ground for terrorists. Owaisi clearly feels Azamgarh's brand equity needs some serious overhaul and by grabbing a foothold with the help of the MP Model village programme, he feels he can tell the electorate that in the next election, they will have a choice.

Owaisi's entry will change the equations on the ground. Even though not a strong Uttar Pradesh party, he and his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi - a forceful and controversial speaker - will appeal directly to the Muslim electorate. Their advantage will be that they will start on a clean slate as against the anti-incumbency, the SP will have to contend with.

One of the reasons why the AIMIM is giving Delhi elections the skip is that it wants to keep the powder dry for UP. Owaisi knows he does not have the organisational structure in place in Delhi to make a dent and wouldn't want a failure in Delhi to dampen the spirits of his cadre when he launches his maiden electoral effort in UP.

Officially none of this is the reason. Owaisi reasons that Hyderabad is an urban constituency and does not have villages so he applied to the ministry of rural development that he was keen on a village in Azamgarh. The SP is not amused, arguing that using a government developmental scheme to make a political point is not the right thing to do.

But there is every possibility that the ministry may not greenlight Owaisi's proposal and ask him to instead choose a village in the vicinity of his constituency, in Telangana state. But by making public his interest in Azamgarh, Owaisi has ensured Yadav's bicycle wobbles at least a bit.