UP witnessing unprecedented war over Muslim vote

With stakes high in the Assembly elections, the Muslim vote is being wooed like never before in Uttar Pradesh where Rahul Gandhi has also joined the race for quota politics.

A virtually no-holds-barred battle has erupted between the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the BSP to garner maximum vote of the minority community, which constitutes some 18% of the 20 crore population.

More players, like Peace Party and Ulema Council, have emerged on the state's political scene in a significant way to claim a share of the Muslim pie.

BJP, which has always opposed the religion-based reservation, has been utilising the race among its opponents to fuel anger among the backwards projecting that the sub-quota for minorities would cut into their share.

Ironically, the tussle over the sub-quota has been started by Congress, which had gone into political wilderness in the state decades ago, in the wake of the Mandal and Mandir upsurge.

Political observers note that the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6,1992, also added to the miseries of the Congress.

While Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid, one of the prominent Congress leaders from UP, has himself spoken of plans for a nine% reservation for backward Muslims in the state and the AICC has remained firmly behind him.

The Samajwadi Party led by Mulayam Singh Yadav in its manifesto has attempted to be one up by promising job reservation to the Muslims on the basis of population-which comes to 18%. The party manifesto is silent on the details.

The SP manifesto also promises to implement all recommendations of the Sachar commission, which went into the sorry plight of Muslims in the country.

Battling hard to retain power, Chief Minister Mayawati has sought to hold on to the Muslim support by writing to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sometime back for taking a "positive" initiative for introducing quota system in educational institutes and government jobs for minorities.

In another letter to the Prime Minister, she has demanded reservation for Muslims on the basis of their population. Mayawati's social engineering in the last Assembly elections has led to her victory which is seen as a defining moment in Indian politics.

While the Congress Manifesto is expected to be made public in a few days, the party's "Vision Document 2020" for Uttar Pradesh speaks of plans to provide reservation to backward Muslims as per their population.

A Congress leader belonging to the minority community aptly remarked that what the Congress was attempting was to win back its constituency which had gone to leaders like Mulayam Singh and Mayawati.

The Congress move on quota politics has come at a time when the last Lok Sabha polls had witnessed Yadav, priding over his hold on the "MY" (Muslim+Yadav) combination, suffered erosion in the minority base after making common cause with Kalyan Singh.

Singh was the BJP Chief Minister when the Babri Masjid was demolished.

Samajwadi Party has also promised job reservation on basis of population ratio which means 18-19% in Uttar Pradesh.

The state already has 21% reservation for Scheduled Castes, 2% for Scheduled Tribes and 27% for OBCs.

With the Supreme Court cap of 50% on reservation, it is not clear how reservation to 18% Muslims in UP "in proportion to their population" will be provided.

Muslims are expected to influence the outcome of the UP results in at least 130 constituencies where their numbers are large. Keeping this in mind, the BSP has fielded 84 Muslim candidates, the Samajwadi Party 75 and the Congress 61.

Mulayam Singh Yadav is also seeking help from Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari, to retain his constituency.

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh has been dismissing as "hollow promise" Yadav's announcement of giving 18% quota outside the OBC bracket to Muslims contending that his party would never have the strength in Parliament to amend the Constitution to take the total quota quantum above the 50% ceiling.

In other promises to Muslims, the SP manifesto says innocent youths held in criminal cases would be released and paid compensation while officials would be punished; efforts will be made to recruit them in security forces; and at least one Muslim would be appointed to government panels.

Other things promised by Mulayam Singh's party include making a law at the state level to keep waqf property away from acquisition, another on welfare and development of dargahs (mausoleums), special budgetary provisions for technical education in madrasas and inclusion of at least one member of the Muslim community in all commissions, boards and committees of the state government.

The tussle for the Muslim and the OBC vote has hotted up amid the general belief that the BSP's hold on its traditional vote bank of dalits was generally intact.