DELHI: With each passing day, the election campaign in India is certainly getting nerve-wrecking, as political parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are playing every trick on the cards to woo the Muslim vote bank.
A few days ago BJPs’ Uttar Pradesh election campaign manager, Amit Shah stirred up a hornet’s nest through his inflammatory speech in a Hindu dominated region against Muslims. He was banned the by Election Commission of India to campaign in UP, only to be restored a day later.
On the other hand, the party president and senior leader, Rajnath Singh who is contesting elections from Lucknow, met top muslim clerics from the city and asked for their support during the elections.
The constituency of Lucknow has been a BJP stronghold since the 1990s and Vajpayee, who was elected for five consecutive parliamentary terms, is still the uncrowned king.
The BJP chief, Rajnath Singh is clearly aiming to cast himself in Vajpayee’s mould in this multi-religious constituency, seeking acceptability from all religions.
UP is a major player in national politics and also holds a large percentage of seats dominated by Muslims. Similarly, Lucknow has a 20% Muslim voter base which has to support BJP if they are to retain the constituency.
Ever since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fielded Bollywood actor and Muslim candidate Jaaved Jaaferi from Lucknow, several parties have sprung into action to weaken him by either fielding Muslim candidates or visiting every Muslim cleric.
Earlier, some Muslim clerics issued statements criticising Congress and urged the community not to vote for them. Now with their meetings with BJP, the party might surely relax and would not want to use its election campaign tag-line of ‘Abki Baar Modi Sarkar’ [this time, Modi’s government] in Lucknow.
BJP has not given a single ticket to a Muslim candidate in UP this time and has fielded only five Muslim candidates all over the country.
Uzair Hasan Rizvi is a journalism student at AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India, He tweets @rizviuzair
A majority of Muslim votes are fragmented and go to different political parties, reflecting their local and class interests. It is evident from this that no party can take the Muslim vote for granted. its untrue that Muslims vote only for congress, but the fact is, if congress have won its hugely contributed by minorities. But most parties shower mere tokenism and stereotyped gestures to won the Muslim votes, not their betterment. Nation Muslims do not need special favours, they want what they are owed as Indian citizens. Access to schools, jobs, housing and fair & equal opportunities, freedom from discrimination, due investigative and unbiased legal process. Muslim grievances and welfare reduces it to a mere political talking point for political parties as election approaches. Nothing is done concrete for all these years for education upliftment & welfare. Muslims ask for education boost thats all they require. Its only for BJP / RSS and sangh, that nation Muslims are just a Vote bank. but other wise , the truth is nation Muslims are voting by their choice to every political party across the country , least to the congress. Nation Muslim are for long aspiring for equality in country’s economic development.
Abu what r u talking about nation muslim u r mad mulla like maulwi who teach muslims that should leave in saparate .r u saparatist. Or pakistani.