After drawing flak for equating Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah with Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel, the Samajwadi Party has decided to tread cautiously and pursue a calculated political strategy to shed its image as a party reliant on Muslim votes. The party’s rationale for this attempted image makeover is that its earlier avatar – as an outfit that heavily leaned on the support of Muslims, next only to Yadavs – was providing fodder for the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hindutva politics.
In the last couple of months, with the assembly elections in UP due in early 2022, this posturing is now visible. Yadav has visited a slew of Hindu temples, time and again proclaiming that he is a “bigger and better” Hindu than the leaders of the BJP. Political observers have also noted a conscious attempt by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav not to share stage with Muslim leaders too often.
“Akhilesh Yadav has been trying to match, if not outdo, the BJP on religiosity. Gone are the days when the SP assiduously and openly courted Muslims,” said a political analyst.
Political observers point out that even Mohammad Azam Khan, the Rampur MP and top Muslim leader of Samajwadi Party is in jail for the past 21 months but the party has not launched any significant protest.
Azam Khan, the nine term MLA and two terms MP, was arrested in February 2020 along with former MLA son and legislator wife. His son and wife have obtained bail. But Azam Khan, facing over 100 cases, is still behind bars.
Sources in the Samajwadi Party said: “Azam Khan is unhappy with the party over his continued detention. Azam Khan knows very well that his problems will not be solved if the Samajwadi Party hits the streets in his support.” He added, “The problems of Azam Khan will be solved when Samajwadi Party is voted back to power.”
A SP leader said, “Samajwadi Party has little choice but to underplay its appeal to Muslims. Hindutva is the dominant narrative of politics currently and you have to follow the rules of the game, whether socialism, secularism, etc. Hindutva is the new game now.”
Samajwadi Party leaders, however, insist that neither Congress nor All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) pose a threat to it.
“The target of the larger sections of Muslims is to get rid of the BJP. For that we are doing what we have to do. We don’t want to play on the pitch laid down by the BJP,” said SP leader Anurag Bhadauria.
He claimed that despite so many challenges, SP remained the top choice of the Muslims across the state as there were not many options.