By Faisal Fareed, TwoCircles.net
The debate over fielding muscleman Atiq Ahmed by the Samajwadi Party from Kanpur Cantonment constituency for 2017 assembly polls has once again exposed the difference in opinion in the Samajwadi Party.
Some people believe that by such a candidate is completely against the clean image that Akhilesh Yadav has been trying to portray, while others attribute this to the internal political squabble within SP.
In Uttar Pradesh during elections, every political party which tries to come closer to Muslims first does a simple thing—field a Muslim candidate. With assembly elections again approaching, parties are again vying with each other to field Musim candidates for winning them over.
And in case of Atiq Ahmed, some, rather naively, claim that it is being done to counter BSP’s Muslim card. Going a step ahead, it is being claimed Atiq’s candidature from Kanpur Cantt will help SP in cornering Muslim votes in whole Kanpur division.
There is no denying the fact that every community in Hindi heartland follows its own members, even if they are muscleman. The same is the case with Atiq.
Let us have a look at the dynamics of Atiq’s candidature from Kanpur Cantt. Presently the seat is represented by Raghunandan Bhadauria of BJP, who owns a transport business and has earned the reputation of being a member of shouting brigade in Vidhan Sabha for BJP. A first time MLA, Bhadauria won the seat with a margin of 9,308 votes.
Bhadauria polled 42,551 votes while Mohammad Hasan Roomi of SP got 33,253 votes. Now, the fancy for Muslim candidate played a spoilsport in this case. In 2012, there were as many as 22 candidates from the seat which included 12 Muslim candidates. SP, BSP, Congress fielded Muslim candidates and the result was that Muslim candidates stood at 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7th position.
Total votes polled by SP, BSP and Congress which had Muslim candidates were 90,570. The difference between SP and BSP candidate for second and third position was mere 2,121 votes. The 22 Muslim candidates polled 98,820 votes in total.
The result was that constituencies with good Muslim population get several Muslim candidates. And there is easy division of votes resulting in their loss. In above contention, Atiq will be no exception as already BSP has announced a Muslim candidate—Naseem Ahmed. Other smaller parties like Peace Parties, AIMIM will also give Muslim candidate to repeat the story.
Now, let us look at Kanpur division. It has six districts-Kanpur Nagar, Kanpur Dehat, Auraiyya, Etawah, Farrukhabad and Kannauj. Unofficial data about Muslim population mentions that that maximum concentration of Muslims around five lakh is Sisamau, Aryanagar and Cantt area of Kanpur. Kannauj has two lakh, Auraiya has one lakh, and Etawah has two lakh. Kannauj has three lakh, while Farrukhabad has two lakh Muslim population. It will be too much to say that Atiq’s candidature will affect all the districts in Kanpur division. Yes, he can influence and contest good election from his own seat which has good number of poor and rich Muslims and they both will find him as their own muscleman.
But his candidature will provide fodder to opposition parties to attack SP for fielding muscleman. Needless to say that every party loves muscleman, if they are in their own party.