By Mohd. Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net,
Bengaluru: Karnataka elections held significance in many ways, it showed exit door to a corrupt and communal regime which happened to be the first BJP Government in southern India, and it has brought back the Congress to power with a clear majority after a gap of seven years. It also showed a new resurgence of caste based regionalism in the form of JDS and KJP.
But for Muslims around India and Karnataka it seized an impact of another kind, leaving behind the sinking BJP ship were even more excited regarding the performance of emerging Muslim political parties like Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and Welfare Party of India (WPI), who were contesting the Assembly elections for the first time.
SDPI was having a base in the state since 2010, and since then it started making mark by winning Panchayat polls, and local bodies elections, whereas WPI was just a year old in Karnataka and was struggling to make a ground presence in competition to SDPI which in four year period spread its tentacles in local politics, and made Karnataka its second most important strategic state after Kerala.
Both SDPI and WPI contested Assembly polls in the hope and desperation to make a pan Karnataka presence; however, as the results were declared none of them were able to win a single seat. But it became clear that while the former succeeded somewhat in proving it’s ‘worth’, the latter failed miserably in making a mark in the state.
Performance of SDPI:
SDPI which claimed in the beginning of fighting from 35 constituencies, at the end fielded only 24 candidates in alliance with BSP. As shown in the table, those 24 candidates of SDPI were able to gather a total sum of 1, 01,226 (one lakh one thousand two hundred and twenty six) votes.
The highest number of votes SDPI got was from Narsimharaja constituency from where its state president Abdul Majid played the role of leader and gave a tough fight to four times Congress MLA Tanveer Sait, whose family is holding the reins of Narimharaja since past four decades. On the counting day till afternoon there was neck to neck fight between a veteran and a debutant, there were even edgy moments when Abdul Majid was just 20 votes behind from taking over Tanveer Sait, but by evening results were clear, and Majid lost the race with a margin of 8,370 votes. Sait got 38,037 votes, and Abdul Majid came second with 29,667 votes leaving behind candidates of JDS and BJP.
Another decent performance by SDPI was shown in Sarvagyanagar where Mehboob Shariff acquired 11,196 votes, finishing third in the race. In many constituencies SDPI was even ahead of regional big wings JDS and KJP. In five constituencies SDPI got third position, and 4th position in nine constituencies, in Mandya constituency party lost the third slot to BJP with just 20 votes, in Mangalore South SDPI got equal number of votes as JDS but was given fifth position.
Dalit candidates of SDPI also did relatively well. A Hemalata, candidate from SC reserved Pulakeshinagar constituency, with 49.3% Muslim population, got third position getting 5,431 votes. Other two Dalit candidates A. Kussapa from Sullia constituency got 2,569 votes and got 4th position, whereas N. Puttanangaya from Hunsur got 1,745 votes and got 6th position.
The most disappointing contests from SDPI were from Bijapur city and Gulbarga Uttar. In 47.3% Muslim populated Bijapur City, SDPI candidate Mohd Rafeeq scored just 325 votes and got 10th position. SDPI’s Raheem Patel got just 654 votes in 49.7% Muslim populated Gulbarga Uttar.
Speaking to TwoCircles.net, SDPI state president Abdul Majid commented on his party’s performance and said that for a party unit which is just four year old it was a promising performance. He added that the whole SDPI cadre is satisfied with results, which according to him is a morale booster for their party cadres.
Majid further said, “We didn’t indulge in any electoral malpractice, we didn’t gave a single penny for vote, still we were able to attract huge number of votes. I alone got nearly 30,000 votes; this shows people are accepting our politics. After this results we are now formally established political party in Karnataka, and now we have got a pan Karnataka recognition.”
But SDPI failed to win any seat, so what will be its future course of action?
Abdul Majid said, “We are not politicians, we are political activists, our activism never ends, we will now start preparing for coming Parliamentary elections.” He continued that after their performance now he and his party cadre is hopeful of soon sending SDPI MP from Karnataka to Delhi.
SDPI, as shown in results is cutting major vote bank of Congress. Now Congress will hold power in Karnataka, so doesn’t SDPI feel threaten on possible Congress revenge? SDPI state president replied, “As told earlier, we are political activists, SDPI is not scared of anyone we are ready to face any political party.”
Performance of WPI:
Welfare Party of India, who just months after formation of party unit, claimed of fighting in 100 constituencies settled later and felt safe in fielding just 12 candidates. All the 12 WPI candidates combined together was able to score just 42 votes above 10,000. WPI got a total of 10,042 (ten thousand forty two) votes in 12 constituencies they contested.
The biggest disappointment from WPI was BT Lalita Naik, former Karnataka state minister who joined WPI in 2011 as its National Vice-President. Much was expected from her, but she gave a miserable performance in Mellashwaram constituency by getting just 236 votes, and ended at the 8th position.
One crucial factor against WPI could be that justly or unjustly it is widely perceived as the political wing of Jamat-e-Islami, thus a Muslim political party. Malleshwaram on other hand was having a negligible number of Muslim voters.
The face savers for WPI were Sardar Khan from Basvakalyan who achieved 2742 votes and got 6th psotion; Laxman Neela Naik from Bagalkot got 1159 votes and settled with 5th position; and Dhanalaxmi Rathod from Chittaput scored 1103 votes and got 6th position.
Though there was no formal understanding between WPI and SDPI, we can’t deny the tactic understanding, as SDPI and WPI were up against each other only in four constituencies – Bijapur city, Sarvagaynagar, Narsimharaja, and Gulbarga Uttar. Even comparing only this four constituencies provided in the table, it is clear that SDPI was way ahead than WPI.
So what went wrong with WPI, who just few months back were challenging on contesting 100 seats? Akbar Ali, WPI state president speaking to TwoCircles.net humbly accepted his party’s miserable defeats and said, “We require more grass root level work to change the winds in our favor.”
But Ali claimed that WPI Karnataka unit didn’t go in this election with the intention to win seats or making a mark, but just to gain as much as experience as they could get. And he said that his party’s experience in corrupt Karnataka politics was bitter. “There were times in this election for us, that we didn’t even have money for printing pamphlets. Forget election material we weren’t able to even provide tiffins to our cadre who were campaigning with us whole day,” Ali added.
But WPI performance was even worse in Hyderabad-Karnataka, where Jamat-e-Islami cadre is in huge numbers. Ali blamed WPI dismal performance in Hyderabad-Karnataka to a trend of voters, especially Muslims to vote in favor of Congress, (but the fact is even Congress sitting Muslim MLAs lost their seats in the region). When pushed more on the same question, WPI state president Akbar Ali for the first time confirmed the rumors that Jamat-e-Islami ordered its cadre to vote for Congress, so many JI cadre didn’t voted for WPI in the region.
Commenting on the performance of SDPI, WPI state president Akbar Ali said, “SDPI show off themselves as a Muslim political party and ask votes in the name of religion, thus many gullible Muslims are getting attracted towards it. Whereas us we are a secular political party we cannot ask votes in the name of Muslim community.”
In the field of playing secular card, WPI did takeover SDPI, it gave almost half of party tickets to Hindus and they did perform well on party ticket when compared to party’s Muslim candidates.
WPI claims that they are now putting this disastrous defeat behind and like SDPI will start working for coming Parliamentary elections.