ELECTION REPORT Damned if they do, damned if they don’t. The polarisation tactics of other parties has caught the Congress leadership in a bind in Uttar Pradesh. The party’s grandstanding on secularism doesn’t allow it to openly canvas for votes on communal lines, yet if does not do so, it cedes crucial Muslim votes to other parties. The party may claim it is against divisive politics, but the reality is it’s the very division of votes along religious lines that can help it win elections.
Minority votes have the potential to influence the results in about three dozen seats out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state and the party realises it has already lost out to other parties in the western UP seats where elections have been held so far. The Rohilkhand region comprising of the Bareilly, Sambhal, Badaun, Pilibhit, Aonla, Amroha, Moradabad, Nagina, Shahjahanpur and Kheri Lok Sabha seats went to polls on Thursday and indications are the BSP has done better among Muslims.
It is now confused over how to approach the remaining seats. The Muzaffarnagar riots in September last year forced all political parties to change their strategy in the state. Forty-three people lost their lives in the riots, and thousands are still too scared to go back to their homes. The BSP was the first to move; it changed many of its candidates, opting to give tickets to Muslims instead.
The Congress has been left still trying to work out the right strategy when the BSP ran away with the first mover advantage. The SP’s image had taken a beating after the riots and the Congress failed to capitalise. “The Congress has done so much in their UPA rule, but we still cannot convey it to Muslims here,” says Aslam Sheikh, a Congress worker from Bareilly, with a hint of exasperation. “The BSP changed its candidates in a blatant manner just to tell the Muslims that they understand their situation.
What did the BSP do for Muslims when they were in power?" The contrast between the Congress and other parties is also clear in the Avadh region in Central UP. Other parties are clear about their agenda, and they are aggressively pushing it too. Varun Gandhi may have moved from Pilibhit to Sultanpur, but his hate speech legacy of 2009 is central to his campaign and supporters wherever he goes.
He has already decided which way his politics will go and it was made clear in the 2009 election when he had to spend some time in Etah jail after being booked for inciting violence. “This battle is more about ideology than anything else. You have the BJP that believes in divisive politics and growth only for a select few” Akhilesh Pratap Singh, Spokesperson of the Congress said. “We believe in inclusive growth and carrying all sections of the society with us.”
The angst of the Congress can be gauged by the fact that Priyanka Gandhi has to spend most of her time campaigning for her brother and mother in the neighbouring Amethi and Rae Bareli seats. Congress has had to mute its campaign and is relying more on door to door campaigns rather than a high pitched one.
And conducting a 'sane' campaign in a high voltage election is tough. Though the ruling Samajwadi Party has not fielded any candidates against them, they are still being pushed hard by the opposition. The other Congress candidates don’t have it so easy; they have to fight their way in multi-cornered contests. Imran Masood of the Congress seems to be the only candidate who was visibly in the fight from Saharanpur, West UP.
But that was only after his old speech on Narendra Modi was aired, because it added to the polarised environment of Uttar Pradesh, especially Western UP. The others have to go about their campaigning the traditional way. The confusion about whether to lambast the polarising factors or to embrace them is hampering their campaign. BJP’s Amit Shah and Samajwadi Party’s Azam Khan have already been banned from speaking at political rallies due to their hate speeches in the first week, just before Western UP went to polls on 10th April.
While the BJP is clear that it will use “Hindutva” under the garb of “Development” at any given chance, the Samajwadi Party has gone to the extent of their chief talking about “protecting” rapists. The EC may have censured them, but they seem to have catered to their constituencies effectively. The Congress on the other hand can do little except cry foul. “The BJP and SP are hand in glove.” says Randeep Singh Surjewala, Spokesperson Congress. “They are masters at creating the bogey of fear amongst the people because it suits their politics.
They will never talk about inclusive growth, it is always about dividing people on religion.” If winnability is the only criteria, then the Congress has a long way to go before it can practically adopt their approach. The other parties have no qualms about openly wooing voters on caste and religious lines.
They seem to be caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, between being a party that is the “conscience keeper” of the country and a party that can quickly adapt itself to the changing scenario and be a “winning” party. The Congress president keeps invoking the “Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb" in her election speeches. But in a state where emotions are running high, will such a tactic work?
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