Six months after winning UP, BJP finds ‘space’ for Muslim candidates in local elections

In the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 state assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party did not field a single Muslim candidate.

BJP’s national president Amit Shah had then replied to a query from newsmen–‘Tickets are decided on the winning ability factor and not on religion and caste.’ Now if Shah’s observation is taken into account then within six months after forming the government in Uttar Pradesh, BJP has discovered winning capability among the Muslim community.

The fact is evident from the list of candidates declared by BJP for the local bodies elections. For the first time, Muslims have found a place, though less in number, still their presence is being felt. BJP leaders attribute it to their slogan–Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas model while the party is also surprised as a good number of Muslims have applied for BJP ticket in the election.

Take for example, for the post of Chairman of Town Area Committees– Abdul Ghafoor Khan from Kurmath (Unnao), Ayesha Khan from Shahjahanpur (Meerut), Nisha Parveen from Saraspur (Bijnaur), Najma Begum from Bhargain (Kasganj)–have been given BJP symbols.

Hard to believe but Muslims had started their inclination towards BJP in UP since March 2017 when Yogi Adityanath took over as Chief Minister. The day he took oath as CM, several hoardings came up in the old city of Lucknow hailing him as their leader. Yogi Adityanath also included Mohsin Raza in his ministry and later nominated him as MLC. A few months later, Samajwadi Party MLC Bukkal Nawab joined BJP. And now his son Faisal Nawab has been given a ticket for Corporator in Lucknow Municipal Corporation.

He is not alone many Muslims have been fielded as Corporator, Ward Members in several districts including Gorakhpur, Meerut, Kanpur, Bijnaur, Amethi, Azamgarh, Gonda, Ghazipur, Rampur, Sambhal, Moradabad, Amroha and several others. A BJP functionary stated that when all lists are declared there will be Many Muslim candidates.

However, it is being attributed that in several of these districts some wards have only Muslim population and hence it is a compulsion of BJP to field Muslim candidates. But this cannot be accepted as the similar situation persisted in previous elections also and BJP shied away from fielding Muslim candidates and in fact, there was no candidate from BJP. In 2012, even in Varanasi BJP fielded a candidate in 78 wards from total 90 wards. But now BJP is not leaving Muslim dominated wards as it has candidates from Muslim community.

As per figures in 2012, BJP has fielded candidates on 844 wards against 980 wards in all municipal corporations.

For the record, BJP had fielded lone Muslim candidate in 2012 assembly polls from Sahaswan, Shakeel Alam who polled only 2,238 votes.