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A first since 2013 riots: Muslim candidates win 6 of 10 civic bodies in Muzaffarnagar
Political experts and the winning candidates said the results indicated that politics of hate that emerged after the riots had now ended and communal harmony between Hindus and Muslims in the region was witnessing a revival.
For the first time since the 2013 riots, Muslim candidates won six of the 10 chairperson’s seats in the nagar palika parishads and nagar panchayats in Muzaffarnagar district of western Uttar Pradesh in the just-concluded urban local body polls.
Political experts and the winning candidates said the results indicated that politics of hate that emerged after the riots had now ended and communal harmony between Hindus and Muslims in the region was witnessing a revival.
Muzaffarnagar district has two nagar palika parishads in Muzaffarnagar and Khatauli and eight nagar panchayats in Bhokerhedi, Charthawal, Meerapur, Purkazi, Sisauli, Budhana, Jansath and Shahpur.
By contrast, in the 2017 civic polls, Muslim candidates had won only the Meerapur and Purkazi nagar panchayat elections. Hindu candidates had bagged eight other seats then.
This time, Muslim candidates won elections in the Charthawal, Purzaji and Meerapur nagar panchayats (all independents), Jansath nagar panchayat and Khatauli nagar palika parishad (both Rashtriya Lok Dal) and Shahpur nagar panchayat (Aam Aadmi Party).
The BJP won the Muzaffarnagar nagar palika parishad election by over10,000 votes as its candidate Meenakshi Swaroop defeated the SP’s Rajesh Sharma.
Division of Muslim votes among AIMIM, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress candidates led to the SP nominee’s defeat, political experts said.
Hindu candidates won the Bhokerheri, Sisauli and Budhana nagar panchayat elections. Shanawaz Ali, who won the Khatauli nagar palika parishad election, said it was the outcome of revival of communal harmony which was damaged during the 2013 riots. Ali said the late RLD leader Chaudhary Ajit Singh and thereafter his son Jayant Chaudhary had held a series of ‘Sadbhavna’ meetings to revive communal harmony.
The 13-month farmers’ movement from November 2020 to December 2021 against three Central agri reform laws (since repealed) also helped in restoring harmony, which was now visible with Hindu and Muslims voting for each other in the region, experts said.
Zaheer Farooqi, the winner at the Purkazi nagar panchayat, said than six Muslim candidates were fielded against him to divide the community’s vote.
“I won because Hindus also voted for me,” he said.
All India Imam Association state president Maulana Zulfikar said the Muslim candidates’ victory in a majority of seats in Muzaffarnagar indicated that people had rejected “ hate politics” and social harmony was seeing a revival.
In December 2022, RLD candidate Madan Bhaiya had defeated BJP nominee Raj Kumari Saini in the Khatauli assembly by-election. The by-election was held after BJP MLA Vikram Saini was declared disqualified from the assembly after a court sentenced him in a case lodged against him during the Muzaffarnagar riots.
In the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the 2017 assembly elections, the BJP had scored a landslide victory in the region. But in the 2022 assembly elections, it won only two seats, Muzaffarnagar and Khatauli, out of the eight assembly seats in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts.
The 2022 assembly poll results in the two districts were seen as an impact of the farmer movement as the Bhartiya Kisan Union headquarters is situated in Muzaffarnagar district’s Sisauli, experts said.
MUZAFFARNAGAR CIVIC POLL RESULT
Nagar Palika Parishad winners
Muzzafarnagar: Meenakshi Swaroop (BJP)
Khatauli: Shahnawaz Ali (RLD)
Nagar panchayat winners
Bhokerheri:Sarla (Ind)
Charthawal: Islamuddin (Ind)
Meerapur:Mohd Zameel Ahmad (Ind)
Purkazi: Zaheer Farooqi (Ind)
Sisauli- Subhasini (Ind)
Budhana: Uma (SP)
Jansath: Abid Hussain (RLD)
Shahpur: Mohd Akram (AAP)
