Muslim votes prove crucial for BSP, bring 56 Muslims to state assembly

By S Ubaidur Rahman
(http://www.Khabrein.info current assembly election in UP has thrown many surprises. The thumping majority that the Bahujan Samaj Party scored over her arch rival Mulayam Singh Yadav is one and very important indeed, as it ensures for the first time that Mayawati government unlike three other occasions in the past is not going to worry about the pressure tactics of her allies in running the government. The other surprise that in fact has surprised many a political commentators is the high number of Muslims in the new assembly, 56 in all.
Muslims have fared wonderfully well in this elections going by any yardstick, with largest chunk coming from Bahujan Samaj Party, 30 at last count. This was followed by Samajwadi party on whose tickets 19 Muslims made it to assembly. It includes high profile Samajwadi party leader Azam Khan as well.
In Uttar Pradesh, Muslims constitute around 17 per cent of electorate and this time round they voted very sensibly like anybody else. The trend this time shows that Muslims have not voted any party en-block as they have always been blamed for. This eliminated the impression that Muslims vote blindly for a party, though this has never been the case.
The results show that Muslims unlike previous occasions have voted for Bahujan Samaj Party in large numbers that resulted in a large number of Muslims making it to UP assembly. In fact Mayawati for the last one year was working shrewdly for bringing closer not only Upper caste Hindus but also Muslims. She has a close confidante in Naseemuddin Siddique who was a star campaigner for BSP this time. Unlike in the past when Mayawati was the only BSP campaigner who used choppers for election campaigning this time she ordered a chopper for Naseemuddin Siddique as well. And he produced results. One in two Muslim candidates fielded by the BSP won in the UP Assembly elections. The party won at several Muslim dominated Assembly seats much to the surprise of political observers who felt that after her alleged anti-Muslim utterances, the community would not be supporting her in the polls. The results, however, proved the pundits wrong as BSP nominees registered impressive victories in Muslim dominated constituencies of Afzalgarh, Bijnore, Chandpur, Kanth, Hasanpur, Bahjoi, Kundarki and Bhojipura in the central region. Even in Eastern UP’s Muslim dominated seats BSP 's winning streak continued and its candidates won Nanpara, Kaiserganj, Gaisari, Gonda, Dumariyaganj and Khesaraha. The greatest loser in this election besides BJP and Samajwadi Party are those Muslim leaders who had floated the idea of a Muslim Party. The People’s Democratic Party that was formed by Kalbe Jawwad with so much fanfare and the later another Muslim party formed by maverick Jama Masjid Imam Ahmed Bukahri with the help of Haji Yaqub who defected from BSP to join SP before leaving SP as well to form UPAUDF. Leaving lone Haji Yaqub who won from Meerut, no other candidate of any of the two parties won any seat.The idea to have a political party of Muslims in UP is not new. There have been several efforts in the past. The perception to have a party of their own stems from the fact that they have been used as vote bank by each and every political party, be it small or big, regional or national level. It is no different when it comes to behave Muslims as vote bank. It is unfortunate that all the political parties take Muslims as a monolithic religious entity voting for any political party en block. A misconceived idea, though, but it has got so much publicized that it seems real. The voting pattern of Muslims denies this super-imposed fact. Muslims have voted for different parties at different times and differently for different parties at the same places. Rampur parliamentary constituency in UP is a case in point where a number of Muslims contest the election and despite their majority in the constituency they have failed to get their own person elected several times. The parliamentary election of 1997 shows that Muslim votes were distributed heavily between the BJP, the Congress and Samajwadi Party. BJP won the election on the force of Muslim votes. In a number of other constituencies too they have been voting differently for different parties.
Despite the fact that they have been voting for different parties they have always been used as mere vote bank. Muslims voted in sizeable numbers for the Congress for a long time but the party did not give any attention to their real issues. Muslims became disenchanted with the Congress after a number of communal riots that caused horrific losses to the Muslim community in different places. Muslims perceived it as betraying their trust despite their unqualified support for this party. The Congress governments were seen as having failed to protect lives and properties during riots, and having denied Muslims a fair share in education and in the economy and as having deprived Urdu of its official status and having systematically sidelined Muslims in all spheres of life. Muslim activists who joined and received party tickets to contest elections at the state or national level were seen as symbol of tokenism. Muslims perceived that Congress leadership does not want Muslims to cross lower rung leadership and they were always restricted to this limit. Most of the Muslims in the Congress, it was felt by the community were reluctant to identify themselves with the hopes, aspirations and demands of the Muslim constituents as they feared they may be dubbed communal and will be refused party endorsements in the future. This was ironical because Congress patently gave nominations to some Muslims in order to attract Muslim voters especially in those constituencies where Muslims were in sizeable numbers.
Now the election results in UP has clearly shown that no party can think of forming the government without widespread support of Muslim community. Without Muslim community’s solid backing Mayawati might have never been able to score a victory in the state. Now it is time for her to make her stand clear towards Muslim community and take concrete steps for development of the Muslim community in the state. Parliamentary elections are to be held in 2009 and the Muslims are certainly going to ask as to what she has done for them before they go to polling booth and cast their vote in favour of her candidate.