By Faisal Fareed, TwoCircles.net,
Lucknow: Make hay while sun shines. Relying on this old age adage, the All India United Muslim Morcha (AIUMM) has extended conditional support to the Congress in the coming state assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
However, the group has demanded that Congress should lift the restriction of religion in Article 341 and pass the Communal Violence Bill before the assembly election. “We have undertaken a public contact programme for past two months across the state. We concentrated on the Muslim voters for knowing their views. We have taken the decision as per the feedback,” said President, AIUMM, Dr MA Siddiqui.
All India United Muslim Morcha President Dr MA Siddiqui (centre) talking to press in Lucknow on 20th Oct. 2011
Siddiqui claimed that Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has lost ground among Muslims as it failed to fulfill their expectations. “Most of the funds have been spent on parks, memorials and other unproductive works. It could have been utilised on some better social welfare schemes,” he said. Regarding his aversion to Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party (SP), he stated that Mulayam only flared the emotions of Muslims but turned a Nelson’s eye towards more important issues related to the community. “We have gone from bad to worse due to Mulayam’s policies. Presently the community is worse than dalits,” he said.
Responding to query about his bonhomie with Congress, Siddiqui admitted that Muslims are reluctant to vote for Congress but they can tilt the scale in its favour if it fulfills the two most pertinent issues — lifting religious restrictions under article 341 thus making way for the inclusion of Muslims in SC list and passing of communal violence bill in the parliament.