CHASE FOR MUSLIM VOTES BEGINS IN UP

By Salman Gilani

When Maulana Amir Rashdi Madni launched Ulema Council a couple of months ago, the move was dismissed as a bid by this firebrand maulana from Azamgarh to avenge the arrest of his son by Maharashtra ATS. Talha Amir had been nabbed last December in connection with the Delhi blast.

But Madni moved fast. After striking a pact with Assam United Democratic Front, the council made its maiden appearance in Delhi last month. The rally turned out to be more successful than what he had imagined. Buoyed by the response, next he brought in two trainloads of supporters to Lucknow to register a protest against the Centre ‘for treating every Muslim boy as suspected ultra’. The council, he announced, will pose a challenge to the state’s might in the coming election.

He proved it within days by fielding candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareli against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul. Detractors call it an open admission of his clandestine understanding with the BSP. However, pitching on the Nehru-Gandhi turf could only be the beginning. The Maulana is preparing to make inroads in at least a dozen more Muslim-dominated seats in Purvanchal.

The Ulema Council has announced two candidates each from Jaunpur, Azamgarh. One of them is Dr Javed, a local orthopaedic surgeon whose son was interrogated by the Delhi police after the September blasts. Though the candidates aren’t known figures, Madni hopes the communal divide post the recent spate of terror strikes in Delhi and Mumbai will work in his favour, helping the council to notch up a respectable tally — specially in Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur and Gorakhpur belt. However, in a symbolic show to press its secular credentials, the council has fielded a pundit — Ambrish Mishra — a practically unknown face from Lucknow constituency.

Madni is definitely an early bird. With election in sight, more such standalone or rag-tag outfits are expected in UP. At least two more such parties — Peace Party and Milli Mahaj, a patchwork coalition of Parcham Party, Loktantirk Party and Muslim Majlis, have already made their debut in the battleground. This is after discounting Muslim League, the oldest outfit, which has not opened its account even in the civic body elections.

The chase for Muslim votes has a reason. According to the official statistics, there are 22 districts in UP where the minority population is more than 20%. Out of the 123 Muslimdominated assembly constituencies listed with the Election Commission, this number is as high as 40-45% in Moradabad or 80% in Rampur. So, it is not surprising to find new aspirants trying their luck though the activity on the front is rather low this time, experts point out.

Unlike the last time, when UPUDF and PDF had actually made the minority expectations soar high. One had a minister in Mulayam Singh’s cabinet Haji Yaqoob Qureshi behind it while the other had the well-known Shia cleric Kalbe Jawwad. Jawwad proved to be a shortdistance runner and bowed out soon after the then chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav doled out minority-friendly sops like a public holiday on the Prophet’s birthday. Qureshi, who was using his lawyer brother Usuf Qureshi as the front, also struck a deal with the Samajwadi Party and UPUDF vanished from the scene right before the general elections. Both the high profile patrons are out of the race in poll 2009, replaced by smaller but seemingly persistent players.

So, while the fledgling parties are flexing their muscles, the antics have failed to have any impact on the targeted community. Khalid Rasheed Firangimahali calls them mushrooming pre-poll phenomena. They come and go with elections, he said. In any case, Muslims in India are too secular-minded to be led away by their claims and promises. This could be the reason they have always lent support to national parties than repose their faith in these seasonal players. And this time, he prophesies, things will be no different.