01-20-2007, 08:15 AM
<b>UP polls: Congress may have to face fierce minority backlash</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Encouraged by Assam results last year, UP saw the birth of two Muslim political parties, both determined to fight elections on communal basis, alone or with seat adjustment with others. This was a rather new trend hurting the interests of those non-BJP parties who heavily rely on the minority votes.
If both the Muslim parties are now facing their premature death, it has been due to the lack of support from the community and the emerging youth power with its access to internet. <b>As a result, the local level community elders will continue to hold on to what is called âstrategic votingâ which alone could ensure optimum use of their bulk vote power</b>.
This system was evolved when the Congress lost its traditional monopoly of the minority votes after other secular claimants like the SP and BSP came on the scene. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Under âstrategic votingâ, the community elders at constituency level would at the last moment decide which non-BJP candidate has the best chance to win. And the laity, by and large, goes by their direction.</span>
If the ground signals prove true, minority rumblings over the PMâs âenlightened national interestâ- based foreign policy twists is spreading from Kerala and Assam to the hinterland<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Encouraged by Assam results last year, UP saw the birth of two Muslim political parties, both determined to fight elections on communal basis, alone or with seat adjustment with others. This was a rather new trend hurting the interests of those non-BJP parties who heavily rely on the minority votes.
If both the Muslim parties are now facing their premature death, it has been due to the lack of support from the community and the emerging youth power with its access to internet. <b>As a result, the local level community elders will continue to hold on to what is called âstrategic votingâ which alone could ensure optimum use of their bulk vote power</b>.
This system was evolved when the Congress lost its traditional monopoly of the minority votes after other secular claimants like the SP and BSP came on the scene. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Under âstrategic votingâ, the community elders at constituency level would at the last moment decide which non-BJP candidate has the best chance to win. And the laity, by and large, goes by their direction.</span>
If the ground signals prove true, minority rumblings over the PMâs âenlightened national interestâ- based foreign policy twists is spreading from Kerala and Assam to the hinterland<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->