After bypoll success, BJP to woo Muslims in ULB polls
BJP looking to field many Muslim candidates across the state as well as in key western UP seats with sizeable Muslim presence; first Pasmanda meet to start from Saharanpur on Dec 24
LUCKNOW After winning three Muslim-dominated seats since June, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is now seeking to create a new vote bank of Muslims and would test its experiment to connect with the biggest minority group in a big way in the urban local bodies’ (ULB) polls.
The saffron party had won the Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats in the June bypoll, and followed it up with a win in Rampur assembly seat in the December 5 bypoll. It had never won this seat since 1952.
The BJP is looking to field many Muslim candidates across the state as well as in key western UP seats with sizeable Muslim presence (Rampur has over 50% Muslim population).
Party leaders said Muslim candidates were being screened. “Yes, the community has shown great faith in our party, leadership and its ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ policies. Many minority candidates would be fielded in these places,” said Ghanshyam Lodhi, BJP MP from Rampur.
The BJP’s Rampur (Sadar) lawmaker Akash Saxena, the first Hindu lawmaker in a seat that had always been won by a Muslim, met chief minister Yogi Adityanath to ensure that big ticket projects were rolled out.
“In our pasmanda (Muslim) meet, which would start on December 24 from Saharanpur, we would talk about how the BJP governments at the centre and in UP have ensured delivery of welfare schemes to the poorest of the poor, sans discrimination,” said Javed Malik, chief of Akhil Bharatiya Pasmanda Muslim Manch and who heads the BJP’s minority wing in western UP.
The high court has barred the State Election Commission (SEC) from declaring notification for these urban local bodies’ polls till December 20 and the BJP’s Pasmanda Muslim meet would start four days later.
Political experts felt that the BJP’s pasmanda Muslim meet would be an interesting experiment that the party would carry out in these urban local bodies with a 4.85-crore population.
Uttar Pradesh now has 762 urban local bodies, 109 more than in 2017, including 17 mayoral seats, 200 nagar palika parishads and 545 nagar panchayats. The party is planning ‘Pasmanda Muslim’ meets – both big and small – in several of them.
This campaign, along with its plan to field several Muslim candidates, was being looked at as a “bold move” ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
“The BJP’s decision to field Muslims and enter into the urban local bodies with an aggressive campaign to connect with them is a bold political statement, with an eye on 2024 LS polls. In these urban local bodies’ polls where the SEC has reserved, notified symbols for 18 recognised political parties along with free symbols for registered, unrecognised political players, means that BJP will be testing its Muslim outreach plank among a really diverse political spectrum,” said Athar Siddiqui of the Centre for Objective Research and Development.
The saffron party had already decided to contest in majority of these urban local bodies on its symbol, so had the Samajwadi Party and its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal. The Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress leadership too had started screening candidates. Apart from them, the Aam Aadmi Party, with its governments in Delhi and Punjab, and which had now been notified as a national party, was planning to contest these polls by fielding candidates in nearly all the seats.
Bihar-based parties, where chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) government was running in alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), too were expected to contest these polls. Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), CPI (M-L), Samata Party, Janata Dal (secular), All India Forward Bloc, Hyderabad-based AIMIM, the Indian Union Muslim League and West Bengal’s ruling TMC were also said to be mulling the prospect of contesting these polls.
“Win of Muslims fielded by the BJP in these polls, with all these parties in fray, would be great publicity ahead of 2024 LS polls,” said Irshad Ilmi, a political expert.