Election 2014: In western UP, SP suffers among Muslims, BSP in favour

New Delhi: Three Bolero cars blaring out electoral messages come almost face to face at a roundabout, a confluence of three narrow alleyways. Chaos follows as the occupants of the vehicles refuse to back off and allow other vehicles to move ahead. The matter is settled after a 20-minute long scuffle. One of the cars belonged to the Samajwadi Party, one to the BSP and one to the Peace Party of India. In a way, the melee in this remote, underdeveloped village is symbolic of the tough fight the parties are involved in the Moradabad parliamentary constituency for the precious Muslim votes.[caption id=“attachment_1479889” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Appeasing the Muslims. PTI[/caption] Post Muzaffarnagar riots, all political parties barring the BJP are in a hyper competitive mode for the Muslim votes. Campaigning is raucous, aggressive and intense in constituencies like Amroha, Moradabad, Nagina and Bareily. This has left the community confused, claim locals. “Everyone wants to clinch the last minute votes in the name of saving the Muslims,” says Mohammad Umar of Umrikala village in Moradavad while taking a drag on his hukkah. He is part of the gathering of village elders that has just returned from a SP roadshow. “After this there is the Peace Party sabha,” informs Abdul, a farm labourer sitting close by. “Everyone is trying to tell us that they will save us. Who would you believe? We did vote for a Muslim from Andhra Pradesh as the Congress party asked us to. We never saw his face after the election,” he says, reffering to cricketer-turned-politician Mohd Azharuddin. “Then we voted for Cycle (the symbol of SP) only to leave everything in the hands of thugs.” You would be deaf to miss the sense of exasperation in his voice. The conversation with the voters here reveal one thing clearly: the Muslims, the majority community in these constituencies, regret their decision to vote for the SP in the assembly elections. “Now they are coming here to tell us again that we should vote for them. They say the NDA will not be good for Muslims,” says Salim Khan in Noorpur, a village near Bijnore, bordering Amroha. “What good has happened to the Muslims here under the Cycleraj? We have been killed in Muzaffarnagar and the UP government is solely responsible,” he says. While SP leader Azam Khan’s remark on Modi has earned him some brownie points, most people are sceptical about him and his party. “Let’s not get into who killed who but the fact remains that Muslims were killed and the government that was sent to the power by Muslims has let them down,” says Salim, who claims that under people like Azam Khan the entire community is being branded negatively. “In Mashoori (Khan’s native) there is goonda raj. But since we voted the SP to power, everyone will say that it’s the Muslims who are the perpetrators of every crime. But Muslims are also the victim of the same crime,” he says. “Muslims are not fools anymore that merely the assurance of physical survival will make them vote for a particular party,” says Mohammad Amir of the Peace Party of India in Nagina. Khan claims that the upward mobility and modern lifestyle is sipping in rapidly. “Everyone wants prosperity and most of all security,” he says. Amir even condemns the Shahi Imam’s call from Delhi. “Everyone has come to know what these Shahi Imams stand for. They are only trying to gain for themselves,” Amir’s view resonates with the voters his party is out to woo. However, the voters here barely see the Peace Party as a formidable option. “No development work has been done here in last five years, the sugar cane farmers are yet to get there dues for the last two years yet parties are still asking for votes in the name of religion,” says Ismail Noor, an Urdu journalist. According to Noor, among all the campaigners, it’s only Mayawati who can truly claim to have given security to people from all communities. “Look at the crime rate during her five year rule,” he says. A large number of Muslim voters have started showing an inclination towards the Mayawati-led BSP. And she clearly knows the sentiment on the ground. However, though she has fielded 19 Muslim candidates, she hardly talks about Muzaffarnagar riots or attacks the BJP for its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s alleged role in the 2002 Gujarat riots. “No matter what, we have to go forward and bring development for ourselves,” she says in front of 30,000 people at a rally. “We need to bring reservation for Muslims, which the Mulayam Singh government failed to do,” she says amid slogan and shouting in favour of her party. “We don’t want to make tall claims like the SP. They claimed nineteen percent reservation and could manage only 1.5 percent,” explains a BSP worker in Amroha. And such tactics are showing their effect on the ground, where the Samajwadi Party finds itself increasingly alienated from the Muslims. “After the riots it has been successfully established by the rivals that the SP is responsible for the violence and if things continue the same way then in the next assembly election there is a chance of it being wiped out in this part of UP,” says an SP MLA on condition of anonymity. Three days to go for the polls, the BSP seems placed better than others, at least among the Muslim community.