The result of the recently concluded Nagar Nigam polls in the state of Uttar Pradesh might have brought Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s worst fears to life.
A BJP leader in Aligarh while talking about the same said that in the past there was less number of Hindu candidates as compared to the Muslim candidates that led to the division of Muslim votes. He added that this time only two Muslim candidates contested and a majority of Muslim voters found the BSP nominee stronger than that of SP and they voted BSP to defeat BJP. He further said that the Dalit voters backed the BJP in the past when BSP did not contest on party symbol. But this time BSP contested on symbol and Dalits voted them. BJP too got Dalit votes, but less as compared to BSP.
Earlier in November, Yadav on his birthday had said that Muslims in the state have always backed SP, but the party’s leaders were not putting in adequate efforts currently to secure their support. The same happened when on December 1, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) managed to win two major mayor seats in the state in Aligarh and Meerut, while SP won none. According to reports, a majority of the community, which has backed SP in most elections after the Babri Masjid demolition, appears to have voted for the BSP this time. Local leaders were quoted as saying that the combination of Muslim and Dalit votes in the state helped BSP win the two mayor seats of Aligarh and Meerut and its candidates performed better than SP candidates on various other seats.
While Mujahid Kidwai, the Samajwadi Party candidate in Aligarh stood fourth after winning only 16,510 votes, BSP’s Mohd Furqan won the seats after bagging 1.25 lakh votes and even defeated BJP’s Rajeev Kumar who got 1.15 lakh votes. Local BJP leaders claimed that the Muslim community voted for BSP in the city that has approximately 2.68 lakh Muslim voters and about 50,000 Dalit voters. SP candidate Mujahid Kidwai was quoted saying, “Muslims are always with the SP. But some faults in the numbering of candidates on EVM helped BSP. Also, of 50,000 Dalit votes, nearly 40000 went to BSP. These Dalit voters voted BJP in the Assembly polls,” according to Indian Express.
While in the case of Muslim-dominated Meerut, state BJP vice-president Kanta Kardam who got 2.05 lakh votes was defeated by BSP’s Sunita Verma who bagged a total of 2.34 lakh votes. SP candidate Deepu Manothia came third after receiving only 47,153 votes in the Meerut municipal corporation area that has around 2.4 lakh Muslim voters and 1.25 lakh Dalit voters. Vipin Kumar Manothia, husband of the SP candidate while talking about the same said, “Barely 2000 Muslims voted SP. Most of them voted BSP. Senior SP leaders are responsible for this situation. The previous SP government had several Muslim ministers from Meerut, but they did nothing for the community.”
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