UP: BSP’S LOOK EAST POLICY
PASMANDA MUSLIMS, THE SO-CALLED ‘BACKWARD’ MUSLIMS, ARE VITAL TO THE BSP’S PLANS
With an eye on the fourth phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections on February 23, Nasimuddin Siddiqui, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) general secretary and a campaigner second only to party chief Mayawati, set up camp in Bundelkhand. He was indefatigable, speaking at rallies in every assembly constituency.
On February 20, three days before the voting in 12 districts, Siddiqui was in the Fatehpur Sadar constituency, one of the six in Fatehpur district. At noon, he arrived at a bus station where a rally would soon get under way. He gave a speech, wielding the Justice R.D. Nimesh Commission report that showed discrepancies in the arrests and evidence against suspected Muslim ‘terrorists’. Siddiqui said the Samajwadi Party government accepted the report’s recommendations in 2013, but failed to act on them. “Have any innocent Muslim youths been released from jail by the SP?” he asked. “No,” roared the crowd.
The report, he continued, called for punishing officers who’d conspired to send innocent Muslim youth to jail on fake charges. “Has the government punished a single officer?”—Nasimuddin delivered the same charged address at rallies in other constituencies in the district. UP demographics—whatever the Election Commission or Supreme Court might define it as— means it invariably comes down to parties appealing to prejudice to cobble together majorities. The BSP believes there is a gap it can exploit, that its coalition of Dalits and Muslims has genuine appeal and that it can attack the SP on its failure to deliver on its promises to Muslims.
“In the first three phases,” Siddiqui asserts, “the BSP received huge support, particularly from Muslims.” Mayawati has placed considerable faith in Siddiqui, making him responsible for the campaign in Bundelkhand, following which he will move east. Other party stalwarts like Satish Misra, Dinesh Chandra, and state president Ram Achal Rajbhar too have specific communitybased responsibilities. “In eastern UP,” Rajbhar claims, “all the constituencies have 50,000 to 1 lakh supporters from the Dalit and OBC communities. Now, with the Muslims on our side, our chances are bright in the east.”
Pasmanda Muslims, the socalled ‘backward’ Muslims, are crucial to the BSP’s strategy. Mohammad Sajjad, a professor at Aligarh Muslim University, says, “Pasmanda Muslims are devout followers of the maulanas. So it was a strategic masterstroke for the BSP to secure the support of Syed Ahmad Bukhari, Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid in Delhi.” Then there is the faith Mayawati has shown in alleged gangster Mukhtar Ansari, whose Quami Ekta Dal, now merged with the BSP, enjoys significant support in areas in which the party won only six out of a possible 40 seats in the last assembly polls. With several opinion polls suggesting a dead heat, a triangular race, Mayawati knows she needs eastern UP more than ever to make a return to the chief minister’s chair.