With an eye on Lok Sabha polls Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party are vying with each other to woo the Muslim votebank
NEW DELHI: With an eye on Lok Sabha polls Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party are vying with each other to woo the Muslim votebank, which commands a significant presence in Uttar Pradesh.
While SP has used the Jamia Nagar encounter issue to muster Muslim votes, BSP has announced a day-long convention on the problems being faced by the Muslim community.
Soon after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BSP president Mayawati announced a convention on 'Problems of Muslim Community in India: Reasons and Solution', the opposition SP dubbed it as a "shield to hide its (BSP's) pro-BJP stand," said SP's chief Whip in Lok Sabha Mohan Singh.
He said that though SP has always voiced the concerns of the Muslim community, BSP has always been pro-BJP. "The convention is a poor effort to show the minorities that the BSP cares for them....how can a party which can tie up with BJP to remain in power be pro-Muslim," said Singh.
BSP's convention on Muslims comes in the aftermath of series of bomb blasts that have rocked the nation and their masterminds were linked to Azamgarh, a town in UP.
However at the same time Mayawati's announcement also coincides with SP general secretary Amar Singh's newfound concern for the Muslim community, as he earlier this week asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a judicial probe in the Jamia Nagar encounter.
Though later the SP leader after failing to elicit a concrete response from Congress for his demand on judicial probe, climbed down from his earlier stance, and suggested that a probe in the encounter could be conducted under the supervision of former Chief Justice A M Ahmadi.
SP in fact had earlier upped the ante as Singh also suggested Home Minister Shivraj Patil to step down on moral grounds till Delhi Police gets a clean chit in the investigation.
BSP has been maintaining a low profile on the issue till now, but with its plan to organise the convention on Muslims, it too has jumped onto the bandwagon of wooing the community, which forms a significant vote base in UP.
Meanwhile during his visit to Jamia Nagar last week, SP leader Amar Singh had told the local residents that his party was like the arms of the Muslim community but it was upto them to either strengthen or weaken it by joining forces with Mayawati's BSP.
"We could have come here earlier, but you were riding the elephant," he had said referring to BSP which has the elephant as its election symbol.
He said if the judicial probe found those arrested in the encounter case innocent, then the SP will have to rethink about its support to the UPA government.
While SP, with 39 seats in Lok Sabha, is holding alliance talks with Congress, the BSP -- with 17 MPs in LS -- has decided to go alone in the forthcoming general elections.
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