E-Paper
Muslims give clear message to SP, Cong
BY QUEERING the pitch for both Congress and Samajwadi Party in the civic elections, the Muslim voters gave their message loud and clear. The massive drift in Muslim votes towards an independent candidate is a clear pointer that community by and large is hardly interested to go by candidate imposed on them. Instead, they want at least their mood must be taken into account when candidature is to be decided.
BY QUEERING the pitch for both Congress and Samajwadi Party in the civic elections, the Muslim voters gave their message loud and clear.
The massive drift in Muslim votes towards an independent candidate is a clear pointer that community by and large is hardly interested to go by candidate imposed on them. Instead, they want at least their mood must be taken into account when candidature is to be decided.
The message is for Congress and equally for the SP engaged in fierce competition for the Muslim votes. Although, Congress fought well in all the segments dominated by the majority votes, the party calculations went haywire, as party nominee couldn’t get on with Muslim voters at large.
Congress candidate Badri Narayan Tewari was seen as someone from Sangh Parivar. Even Union Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal rallied hard for his candidature, the community circle had begun buzzing with demand for a change. And Tewari cornering all contention grabbed the ticket pinning all his hopes on Brahmin-Muslim equation.
The Brahmin largely sided with him but Muslims drifted away primarily for two reasons. First, his candidature didn’t go well with general Muslims. Secondly, party’s Muslim leaders went by public mood and refrained from campaigning for him. They did seek votes for party candidates for municipal councilors.
If this just mistake from side of Congress, the SP made a bigger one out of complacency. It brought in the BJP rebel Neeraj Chaturvedi nevertheless he’s, perhaps, the most hated figure for Muslims. SP’s calculation was just simple: the traditional votes, Muslim votes plus the dent Neeraj would make in BJP vote bank.
As the picture emerge, this very equation was never at play. Neeraj was completely rejected by the Muslims and he couldn’t eat into the BJP vote bank.
The SP leaders watching Neeraj on fourth place throughout the counting of ballots, admit the decision to field him wasn’t prudent at all.
But for the Muslim intellects, a signal of such intensity was more than required for Congress and SP alike. The founder member of Babri Masjid Action Committee, Abul Barkat Najmi earlier said Muslims voted for anyone capable of defeating the BJP candidate.
“The political parties were cashing in on this tendency, extending candidates of choice. As a result, Muslim votes got divided and the ultimate goal was always unachievable,” says Najmi. But some out of the box thinking helped the community to break this jinx, observes Haji Salees of All India Muslim Personal Law Board (Jadid).
The community for him did the unexpected to let the Congress and SP realise that it wanted candidates who’re acceptable to Muslims. The Congress has already got into introspection mode and the Muslim leadership is preparing a joint note to apprise the high command the change in Muslim perception.
