Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav is facing a lot of trouble trying to keep his party’s Muslim votebank intact. On Saturday, Delhi Jama Masjid Imam Ahmed Bukhari snapped all ties with his party. A day later, on Sunday, Mulayam was heckled at a large convention of Muslims organised by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind here.
Mulayam was in the midst of his speech when a group of Jamiat workers started raising slogans demanding former cabinet minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya’s arrest in the recent murder of a DSP Zia-ul-Haq. The police official’s widow has named Raja as the main accused in the murder case.
Mulayam tried to assuage the crowd by saying that the interest of the Muslims is Akhilesh Yadav government’s top priority. “We will not hesitate in even sacrificing our government to fulfill the aspirations of the Muslims,” he said. “We will not let any kind of injustice be done against Muslims,” he added.
Mulayam also promised that false terror cases registered against innocent Muslim youth would soon be withdrawn and those jailed in these cases released. The Jamiat, a formidable force as regards the representation of Muslims, is only the latest problem the SP chief is facing.
There is unrest among the minority community over the string of communal riots in the state since the Akhilesh government took over in March 2012. In the aftermath of the riots, it is the Muslims who have allegedly been targeted and harassed by the police.
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