New Delhi: Last week, out of 6,671 councilors elected to local bodies in Madhya Pradesh, 92 were contesting on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tickets. According to party leaders, this was the first time the BJP had distributed tickets to 380 Muslims for local body elections in MP – compared to less than 50 in the previous elections in 2014.
Many were surprised by the victory of Muslim candidates of the BJP in wards considered Congress strongholds. BJP’s Muslim candidates also came second in 209 wards, defeating Hindu Congress candidates in at least 25 wards.
Compared to 2014 when the number was 400, this time the Congress fielded 450 Muslim candidates, of which 344 won.
Muslims constitute 6.57 percent of the population of Madhya Pradesh. As per Census 2011,
For example, Abdul Kalam of BJP defeated Ashok Tripathi of Congress in Anuppur. In Katni, BJP’s Mohammad Ayaz defeated Congress candidate Mohanlal, while in Ujjain, Congress’ Vaishali was defeated by BJP’s Abida Bi.
According to party leaders who spoke to ThePrint, this was the fruit of a strategy to divide the Muslim vote to win victory in Muslim-majority wards, where the BJP could already rely on Hindu votes.
But although the BJP fielded Muslim candidates in smaller towns, the party took a different route in cities including Bhopal, Indore and Jabalpur, where no tickets were given to Muslims.
It is “a victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s effort to involve all communities in India’s development journey”, state BJP spokesperson Hitesh Bajpai told ThePrint.
“Vote [by Muslims for the BJP] have shown faith in our policy of Everybody’s company will help in everybody’s growth (Support for all, Vikas for all). Our Muslim candidates defeating Congress’ Hindu candidates has signaled a significant change in the politics of the state.
In the local body elections, the BJP won 24 out of 40 municipal councils and 123 out of 169 municipal councils. Party sources told ThePrint that it has a majority in around 80 per cent of the state’s municipal corporations and councils. before,
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‘Results show Muslims ready to vote for BJP’
Muslim candidates fielded by the BJP won four wards each of Gwalior, Khandwa and Burhanpur. Similarly, Muslim candidates of BJP won two wards each in Chhatarpur, Tikamgarh, Dewas, Narmadapuram and Narsinghpur.
According to BJP Minority Morcha state chief Rafat Warsi, this was a “strategic move to field Muslim candidates” in the local body elections.
“This is the first time the BJP has fielded such a large number of Muslim candidates. Since the dynamics of local elections are different from that of assembly elections, our strategy proved to be effective in garnering both Muslim and Hindu votes,” Warsi said.
Warsi claimed that the results of the local body elections showed that “Muslims are willing to vote for the BJP”, adding that the party only needs to “spread awareness among the community about its”Everybody’s company will help in everybody’s growth” Policy.
“Since the voters in most of the wards are around 2,000-3,000, we knew that we will get maximum Hindu votes and if we can divide some votes of Muslims then victory is certain. So we followed this strategy in Muslim-majority wards and we were successful.
For example, the BJP’s strategy in Khandwa – where its Muslim candidates won four wards – was to rely on the division of Muslim votes in Muslim-majority wards.
Khandwa BJP district president Sewa Das Patel said, “We have given tickets to nine Muslim candidates, out of which four won. Among them were two women. Congress party candidates in all four wards were also Muslim, but lost to our Muslim candidate. All these wards where BJP had fielded Muslim candidates were Muslim majority.
Another senior BJP leader in Madhya Pradesh, on the condition of anonymity, said that while this strategy of fielding Muslim candidates in Muslim-majority wards was a “smart strategy”, it cannot be replicated in assembly elections, as an assembly The area is big. ,
“Unlike wards, in large constituencies where the voter turnout is more than five lakh, it is very difficult to win by dividing Muslim votes,” the leader said.
But the Muslim leaders of the BJP are hopeful that the party will adopt a similar strategy in the assembly elections due next year.
Warsi said, “This victory in the local body elections has given a ray of hope for the party. We will demand more seats in the assembly elections. It has been proved in the local body elections that the Muslim community is ready to vote for the BJP. Is.
In the 2018 assembly elections, the BJP fielded only one Muslim candidate, Fatima Rasool Siddiqui, in the Muslim-dominated Bhopal North constituency. Fatima, daughter of Congress leader Rasool Ahmed Siddiqui, lost the election. Earlier, only one Muslim candidate – the late Arif Baig – was included in the list of BJP candidates for the 2013 MP Assembly elections.
Meanwhile, the Congress fielded only three Muslim candidates in the 2018 assembly elections.
(Edited by Amritansh Arora)