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In UP, Muslim votes get tougher to chase

The crucial and mostly unpredictable minority votebank is once again back in focus in the UP assembly election.

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With Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav playing the minority card and the Pesh Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid Maulana Ahmed Bukhari throwing his hat in the electoral ring, the crucial and mostly unpredictable minority (read: Muslim) votebank is once again back in focus in the Uttar Pradesh assembly election.

Interestingly, soon after Maulana Bukhari berated the Congress and appealed to Muslims to vote Mulayam to power in UP — at a press conference with the SP chief in Lucknow on Saturday — renowned cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawwad also lashed out at the Congress and swore to ensure defeat of its nominees in the election. Bukhari belongs to the Sunni sect while the Jawwad, known for his proximity to Mulayam, is a Shia cleric. Though the latter did not speak of the SP or Mulayam, the coincidence during election time was too stark to be missed by those in the know of things.

It is no secret that Muslim clerics command much more influence among the minority community, a large majority of which is poor and illiterate or semi-literate, as compared to Muslim political leaders. Mulayam seems to have taken the lead in this election in getting a powerful cleric to take his side. The 18 per cent Muslim vote in UP is crucial in as many as 145 of the 403 assembly constituencies, while it is decisive in at least 80 of these seats. And it’s not as if other non-BJP parties are not thinking or working on similar lines.

While Mulayam on Saturday got a host of Deobandi clerics along with Bukhari to sing his praises and garner Muslims’ support for the SP, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh is known to have spoken to several prominent Barelvi Maulanas and assured them that the Congress is doing and would continue to do everything possible for Muslims’ welfare.

As early as in November last year, Rahul Gandhi had visited the Nadwatul Ulema, a world renowned centre of Islamic learning here, and met Nadwa rector and All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) president Rabey Hasan Nadwi to discuss issues related to minorities’ welfare.

Even the ruling BSP has been on the job. The party’s Muslim face Naseemuddin Siddiqui, a cabinet minister handling over a dozen important portfolios, has been in touch with several Muslim clerics, and sources say many of them would be seen on the rostrum in the BSP’s rallies starting in the first week of February.

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