Mulayam in Azamgarh: Has he finally accepted the Modi wave?

It appears that the Samajwadi Party may have finally accepted that there is a Narendra Modi wave blowing through Indian’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. Nobody will admit it, but Mulayam Singh Yadav’s decision to field himself from Azamgarh besides his home turf of Mainpuri conveys a clear and present uneasiness in the ranks of the ruling party in the state government. The announcement of Modi’s candidature from Varanasi has altered the electoral game in UP and especially so in the 32 seats of Poorvanchal (eastern UP) and in some adjoining constituencies in Bihar. Though Varanasi, Azamgarh and in fact the entire region will go to polls only in the last phase on May 12, it appears from the build-up that the mother of all battles for the 16th Lok Sabha will be fought in this region. [caption id=“attachment_1420853” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Mulayam Singh with his son Akhilesh Yadav. AFP[/caption] By moving to a constituency that is next door to Varanasi, Mulayam Singh wants to send a message to his social constituency, particularly the Muslims, that he is the only one who can stand up and possibly repulse a perceived tidal wave of support for Modi. Azamgarh has been considered an epitome of Muslim politics. The issues of the Muslim community here have been highly emotional. While there are serious issues of development and livelihood here, ever since security agencies began to treat this region as a hotbed for recruitment to the Indian Mujahideen and after the Batla House encounter in which those killed belong to the region, the community here has been sensitive issues to issues of security, personal and for the community. In one go, Mulayam has somewhat contained the anger of the Muslim community over the mishandling of the Muzaffarnagar riots. After all, in pursuit of countering an advancing Modi challenge, grievances relating to Muzaffarnagar can be temporarily put on the backburner, they say. Zahid Azmi, a professor in the famed Shibli National PG College in Azamgarh, says, “Mulayam Singh Yadav has for long been trusted by the minority community in this region. Yes, after the Batla House incident there have been many grievances against him. But with the decision to field himself from here, he has now shown that he alone has the calibre to take on Modi. We have been talking about it for the last few days and now there is a general unanimity among the people of my community that he has changed the atmosphere for those who wish to believe in his politics just as Modi had done for his believers by going to Varanasi.” The problem for the Samajwadi Party, however, is that the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate is not talking anything that could even be remotely connected to Hindutva. Modi, instead has been talking of development, his own vision of how a developed UP could contribute to the nation and raising economic issues that strike a chord with weaker sections of Hindus as well as Muslims. Modi is not doing anything that could be termed as communally sensitive that can have polarising effect in the minority community. Everything is thus left in the realm of interpretations. The fact is that there cannot be any dispute that Modi personifies Hindutva and his conscious choice of Varanasi – which as per mythological beliefs is Lord Shiva’s alternate abode beyond the Himalayas, a place which has universal appeal as the holiest of holy cities for Hindus – is seen by his critics as metaphorical reaffirmation of his belief in Hindutva. It’s a different matter that in his public rally in Varanasi Modi talked of tourism, civic infrastructure, and how issues relating to weavers and of famed Banarasi Sarees were as much of Muslims as much of Hindus. But then the slogan Har Har Modi, Ghar Ghar Modi has its own symbolism, taken straight out of Varanasi’s cultural and traditional chant that almost all residents of the region keep repeating, Har Har Mahadev. Leaders of Congress, BSP and Samajwadi Party privately admit that Modi’s announcement of his candidature from Varanasi has changed the electoral atmosphere in the entire region. Till Congress announces a heavyweight name or SP changes its candidate for Varanasi, it is local don Mukhtar Ansari, a former SP, former BSP member who now has his own party Qaumi Ekta Dal who is Modi’s prime challenger. It was precisely for this reason that SP played its best card, making Mulayam move to Azamgarh, a constituency sandwiched between Varanasi and Gorakhpur (a stronghold of BJP’s Yogi Adityanath). The SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhray while announcing Mulayam’s candidate from Azamgarh in addition to Mainpuri, spoke at length on “communal politics unleashed” by the BJP and RSS. He kept on repeating his party’s charge that the Sangh Parivar was trying to spoil communal amity on one pretext or the other, Chaurasi Kosi Parikrama, Muzaffarnagar riots. Modi according to him was fanning communalism, so it was incumbent on Mulayam to contain him and the BJP. Clearly he was aiming at polarising Muslim votes in his party’s favour. For Muslims in eastern UP, the Batla House encounter in the UPA1 regime has no less or no more emotional impact as the Babri Mosque demolition has had since 1992. Such had been its impact that people of Azamgarh negated even the biggest of secularists in the Congress ranks like Digvijay Singh and Salman Khurshid, even hooting out Rahul Gandhi when he landed at famous Shibli National College premises for campaigning during 2013 UP Assembly elections. Incidentally, Azamgarh is represented by the BJP’s Ramakant Yadav. The locals narrate the story at length how during last parliamentary elections the Ulema Council in an emotive burst fielded the widely respected Dr Javed Akhtar and in the end Muslim votes were split to hand the seat to the BJP on platter. So far Ramakant Yadav was thete  clear favourite and was challenged by BSP’s Shah Alam alias Guddu Zamali. The Samajwadi Party candidate Havaldar Yadav was on number three, Congress out of reckoning. Mulayam’s entry has changed it all. The epicentre for 2014 elections is going to be eastern UP. For the battle here is as much casteist, as much communally polarising, as much as it is development oriented. Depends what you want to pick.