Muslim political outfits in Uttar Pradesh are flexing their muscle demanding equal representation and treatment at par with others like the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which is likely to be accommodated in the SP-BSP alliance.
After Azamgarh-based Rashtriya Ulama Council’s (RUC) demand for 20 percent seats in proportion to the Muslim population in the state, the UP wing of Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) too has made a similar pitch. With the exception of Peace Party, which won four assembly seats in 2012, none of these Muslim outfits have managed to open their account in the state though they did get a small percent of Muslim votes.
Peace Party founder Dr Mohammad Ayub, a surgeon, however, feels that the Muslims would have to join hands with Dalits and other OBCs to defeat the ‘communal forces’ in the state. “We proved this when we won CM Yogi Adityanath’s Gorakhpur parliamentary constituency in the by-elections last year with the help of NISHAD party and SP,” said Dr Ayub. He said his party and other like-minded parties like the NISHAD party would support the SP-BSP alliance and a formal announcement in this regard would be made very soon.
The Qaumi Ekta Dal (QED), the party led by gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari and his brothers Afzal and Sibghatullah Ansari, which has a strong base in Ghazipur, Mau and some other pockets in Eastern UP, has already announced its merger with the BSP. “We are with ‘behenji’ (BSP chief Mayawati) and will discharge whatever responsibility or role is assigned to us,” said Afzal Ansari.
“We too want to defeat the BJP but at the same time, we also want proportional share like any other regional outfit. The problem is both the SP and the BSP rely heavily on Muslim votes but they do not want to give them adequate representation,” said Shaukat Ali, UP chief of the AIMIM.
The AIMIM contested on 36 assembly constituencies in UP in 2017 but failed to open its account although its candidate was declared a runner-up on Sambhal seat and the party’s nominee bagged substantial votes on four-five other Muslim dominated assembly constituencies. Ali said a state-level meeting of all office-bearers of the party would be held on January 20 after which they would spell out their future course of action and strategy on whether to go alone or join the alliance.
Maulana Tauqeer Raza of All India Ittehad-e-Millat Council, which has a support base in Bareilly and its adjoining areas, however, is non-committal. “We are still weighing our options. I would not like to say anything at this moment,” he said.
First Published: Jan 18, 2019 08:40 IST