The recent by-elections to Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats and the defeat of the Samajwadi Party have once again fueled speculation of a rift in the Muslim vote bank, considered the traditional voter of the SP.
Muslim voters may have voted unanimously in favor of the SP during the 2022 state assembly elections, but there are voices of discontent among the community over the SP chief’s stand. Akhilesh Yadav Issues related to minorities are now visible.
From not raising the issue of Azam Khan during his stay in jail to silence on rape threats given to Muslim women, Yadav’s shaky stand has forced the community to look for other political options.
Highly placed sources in the SP reveal that the revolt by Muslim leaders and some of them even resigning from the party was earlier taken lightly by the top leadership.
However, as the voices grew louder, he tried to stand with the community, but only on Twitter.
Sources also reveal that the change in the SP leadership’s stance came a little late, giving opportunities to other players such as the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and all. India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) SP vote bank,
blame game continues
The SP, however, has denied that it has lost its grip on Muslim voters, and has instead blamed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government to lose the by-election.
Speaking to News18, SP spokesperson Abdul Hafiz Gandhi said, “We got votes from every community. Our party workers worked very hard, but the reality of our defeat is the blatant misuse of official machinery by the BJP government. In Rampur, our voters were threatened by the police and the result was the lowest turnout of 41% in Rampur Lok Sabha constituency. This is the lowest percentage of votes polled in the last 18 Lok Sabha elections after independence.
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“In both Rampur and Azamgarh, red cards were issued to thousands of our party workers to stay away from the electoral process. The BJP used every dirty trick to manipulate the elections in its favour. On election day, we filed our complaints about misuse of official machinery Election Commission, to no avail. The SP has always been strong in both the Lok Sabha constituencies. Had the police and other material not been misused by the BJP government, we would have won both the seats.
Overconfidence?
Yadav was so confident of retaining both Azamgarh and Rampur that he did not campaign in the constituencies. SP insiders revealed that campaigning for the by-elections, and that too in the Citadel seats, was considered “below standard” by those advising the SP chief.
The SP leaders clearly failed to realize how vigorously the BJP is preparing for the by-polls. At least 18 ministers of the BJP government, including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath campaigned with enthusiasm For both seats.
Rampur is considered Khan’s stronghold and even political observers believe that it will not be easy for the BJP to defeat the SP in its stronghold. When Khan was elected from here in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the SP’s vote share was 52.69, which has now come down to 46; Then BJP got 42.33 percent votes. This time the party workers carried out the strategy of taking maximum voters from home to the polling booth, due to which the BJP got 51.96 percent votes.
In addition, the SP had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election in alliance with the BSP, which paid dividends.
In Azamgarh too, when SP and BSP contested elections together in 2019, the results were in favor of SP. However, this time the BSP fielded Guddu Jamali, thereby dividing the Muslim vote as Jamali got over 2.66 lakh votes. This was enough to spoil the hopes of SP candidate Dharmendra Yadav.
Rashtriya Ulema Parishad and AIMIM’s support for the BSP candidate also ensured more Muslim votes for Jamali.
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Jamali’s votes prove that this time Muslims did not lag behind the SP, as it did in the recently concluded UP assembly elections, when the SP won all 10 assembly seats in Azamgarh.
After the by-election results, BSP supremo Mayawati praised Jamali on Twitter.
All the BSP’s small and big workers, office bearers and party candidate Shri Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali etc. have fought Azamgarh Lok Sabha by-election with full determination and courage, it is necessary to continue it till 2024 Lok Sabha. Election. To convert the ground preparations for the 2024 Lok Sabha general elections into votes, not only in Azamgarh, but in the whole of UP, the BSP’s struggle and efforts have to continue. In this sequence, it is also very important to protect a particular community from being misled in all the upcoming elections.
1. All types of beta’s adaptive-mutated Guddu Gel etc. implemented together with the metabolic effect of Azamgarh and Dilery together with the resolution for 2024. Too.
— Mayawati (@mayawati) June 27, 2022
Reacting to the victory on the SP’s ground, UP BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said, “A paradigm shift has come in Uttar Pradesh after 2014. The BJP government at the Center and in the state is working for development without any bias. There were some sections of the society who used to trust the BJP a little less, although seeing the development of the BJP government, all sections have realized that the BJP government works for everyone. Earlier there were some political parties in the state which acted as ‘contractors’ for the votes of certain communities, however, people have rejected such parties. BJP’s victory in the by-elections is the result of fair implementation of government schemes.
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