Relying heavily on the Dalit-Muslim combine for a comeback after her party’s worst ever performance in the last UP assembly elections, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, on Sunday, said that “casteist and communal” political parties were having sleepless nights ahead of the urban local bodies polls in Uttar Pradesh as her party had given proper representation to the Muslim community in ticket distribution.
“Politics has heated up here due to the BSP giving a proper representation to the Muslim community in the elections for the mayors’ posts in 17 municipal corporations. Casteist and communal parties are having sleepless nights due to this,” the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh said in a tweet in Hindi.
“The BSP is an Ambedkarwadi (Ambedkarite) party that follows the policy and principle of ‘sarvajan hitay’ and ‘sarvajan sukhay’ and has formed its government in Uttar Pradesh four times on that basis. It always gave proper representation to Muslims and other communities. Therefore, I appeal to the people to pay more attention to their own interests and not to the conspiracies of our rivals,” she added.
It is worth mentioning that by fielding more than 64 per cent Muslim candidates for the posts of mayor in the two-phase municipal elections, the BSP has not only tried to attract the Muslim population of the state, having about 20 per cent votes, but has also tried to dent the vote bank of Samajwadi Party which also depends on the minorities vote for success.
Political analysts are considering this as a strategy of the BSP to make inroads among Muslims for the Lok Sabha elections to be held in 2024. Interestingly, both SP and Congress have termed this move of the BSP as a vote-cutting strategy to ensure victory of Bharatiya Janata Party candidates. From time to time, both BSP and SP charge each other for working as the B team of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The BSP has fielded Muslim candidates for the post of mayor in the municipal corporations of Lucknow, Mathura, Firozabad, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Moradabad, Meerut, Shahjahanpur, Ghaziabad, Aligarh and Bareilly. The SP and Congress have placed bets on only four Muslim candidates each. The BJP has not fielded a Muslim candidate on any of the mayor's seats.
According to reports, this time the issue of the murder of mafia Atiq Ahmad has also been included in the civic elections. In Meerut, the BSP candidate has directly blamed the SP for Atiq’s murder and linked it to the displeasure of the Muslim community. Earlier, an alleged letter from Ali Ahmad, son of Atiq Ahmad, went viral on social media in which he blamed BJP as well as SP for the death of Atiq Ahmad, Ashraf and Asad.
The urban local bodies polls are scheduled to be held on May 4 and May 11 and the counting of votes will be taken up on May 13.