?Mafiaraj? behind SP?s defeat?

With civic body polls over, the poll pundits have started analysing the causes behind the defeat of the Samajwadi Party mayoral candidate and the victory of Congress after a long gap.

With civic body polls over, the poll pundits have started analysing the causes behind the defeat of the Samajwadi Party mayoral candidate and the victory of Congress after a long gap.

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Veteran CPI (ML) leader Syed Mohd Shahab feels two major factors were responsible for the waning away of Muslim votes said to be in the kitty of Samajwadi Party in the City West and which played a deciding role in this election.

Institutionalising of criminals in City West by the Samajwadi Party and growing disenchantment of Muslims with political parties specially those which had been claiming to be the messiah of minorities were the two main factors responsible for this defeat, feels Shahab.

A large number of Muslims in this area had been feeling suffocated by the reign of terror unleashed by the goons of some Samajwadi Party leaders who themselves are criminals-turned politicians. Despite being Muslims these goons at the instance of their godfathers had been grabbing the land of none other but of the people from their own community. Terrorised by the goons the victim had no other alternative than to sell his land at a throw away price.

This harassment had been going on in Karelabagh, Kareli, Akbarpur, Lukerganj, Khuldabad, Chakia, Gausnagar and many such areas dominated by Muslims.

The situation has worsened to such an extent that the victims had been getting no succour from any quarter.

Even, the local police had been dancing to the tunes of the criminals-turned politicians of this area who consider City West as their fiefdom. They have even acquired several pieces of land illegally in the posh Civil Lines area and a word had spread around that they will become active in other parts of the city in case a person of their party becomes the mayor. This was not the end. Muslim voters were terrorised and manhandled on the polling day. Several Muslim women complained of misbehaviour. In many cases their veils were lifted to see whether they were genuine voters or not. Cops on their part lodged no FIR against any such illegal act, said Syed Azadar Hussain, a teacher activist living in the area.

Then Muslims over the years had been cheated by most of the political parties.
Till now they had been supporting one party after the other but in the end they felt cheated.

They had been impatient to get a platform and Abdul Bukhari, the Imam of Jama Masjid, appeared at the right time on the scene to assuage their hurt feelings, said Shahab.

This resulted in the division of votes. A major chunk went to the UDF while most of the remaining chunk was bagged by the Congress.