Is it the last time SP can take Muslim vote for granted in UP?

Sandeep Dikshit

Najibabad (UP), April 18

In the seventeenth century Jama Masjid, Imam Isa Ali was busy counselling people on the importance of a wedding and its rituals. But he dwelt the longest on the evils of dowry and gaudy and ostentatious ceremonies.

“This is the biggest problem. Girls in the town who have reached the age of 30 remain unmarried. After marrying off one daughter, the father has to worry when and how he will marry off the second daughter,” said Imam Isa Ali, an alumnus of Deoband, who was invited by locals to shift to this mosque from a nearby village in 1988.

At a time when their vote has become “irrelevant” for the ruling BJP in both UP and at the Centre, the community is introspecting to make it capable of dealing with the challenges of the modern world. As far as the elections go, the Muslims here, who outnumber other communities in Najibabad as well as nearby towns of Chandpur, Nehtaur, Noorpur etc., have made up their minds notwithstanding the siren call of Chandrashekhar also known as Ravan, a new Dalit leader.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, there was no dilemma among the Muslim voters of western UP spread generously in nine seats that go to the polls on April 19. It made practical sense for them to opt for the Samajwadi Party-BSP-Jayant Chowdhary’s RLD. The joint BSP candidate Girish Chandra won the Nagina seat by a healthy 1.67 lakh votes. “But we had to steel our hearts to vote for SP’s Tasleem Ahmed three years later,” says Javed Mateen after he was nowhere to be seen during the CAA protests. Would Chandrashekhar be a better option? Why not Owaisi’s AIMIM? As the gathered crowd seems to nod in unison, Javed points out that there is no dearth of volunteers for Chandrashekhar.

“But when we ask them where Chandrashekhar is, they always say he’s elsewhere. That’s our point too. One man without a party structure cannot achieve much,” he points out, indirectly indicating the prevailing preference for the SP-Congress alliance. But as an elderly woman says, this could be the last time the SP can take the Muslim vote for granted. “It is because of Rahul Gandhi’s point of view on our issues that we are with the SP,” she says.