Parties scramble for Muslim votes in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow: Three major political parties in Uttar Pradesh are locked in a race for the Muslim vote, seen to be floating in these Lok Sabha polls rather than being tethered to any political outfit as in the past.

The Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are trying their best to woo the Muslim voters away from the Samajwadi Party (SP).

Thanks to Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's marriage of convenience with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rebel Kalyan Singh - better known as the Babri Masjid demolition man - a good chunk of Muslim voters who had remained closely wedded to Yadav are ready to look for other options.

That has led to a scramble for the crucial 19 per cent Muslim vote in a state with a population of 170 million that sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, the highest among all states. Yadav remains ahead of others in the race, but not without devoting a lot of his time and energy towards re-establishing his bonafides with a community that was willing to swear by him until not very long ago. Both the BSP and the Congress have left no stone unturned to woo the Muslim voter.

That has forced Yadav to rush to India's pre-eminent Muslim seminary - Darul-Uloom in Deoband - to seek support, after his party's general secretary Amar Singh was given the cold shoulder. Elsewhere too, Yadav has been busy knocking on almost every possible Islamic door to explain his handshake with Kalyan Singh.

While his clarification that Kalyan Singh - once a powerful BJP leader - had sworn to strengthen Yadav's own mission of crippling the saffron brigade has failed to jell with a large chunk of Muslim voters, there is a small section that appears to be getting convinced by the argument.

And though many of Yadav's own Muslim leaders chose to part ways with him on this account, he was busy arguing with others that the alliance with Kalyan Singh would benefit the Samajwadi Party.