04-15-2009, 04:00 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Mulayam canât bet on Muslims anymore</b>
pioneer.com
Kumar Uttam | Ballia
Kalyan factor, criticising action against Varun may work against SP
Next to me on board a train from New Delhi to Mughal Sarai were two men, who were fresh graduates in their early twenties and about to take up marketing jobs.
Sarfaraz, one of them who used to be a staunch supporter of Mulayam Singh Yadav said: âBut, now I am not. How can he befriend Kalyan Singh who is responsible for the shahadat of the Babri Masjid? Mulayam has cheated our community.â
The worst that the SP had feared is apparently coming true: The Kalyan factor and Mulayamâs âsoft standâ on Varun Gandhi are taking their toll on the SPâs prospects. <b>Muslims, who constitute nearly 19 per cent of the total UP population, are not ready to blindly toe Mulayamâs line anymore.</b>
The eight-hour drive from Chandauli to Varanasi, then to Ghazipur and finally to Ballia (this constituency had elected former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar many times in a row) gave unmistakable signs that Mulayam Singh Yadavâs magical Yadav-Muslim combination was cracking.
Mayawati seems to be the biggest beneficiary. For the Chief Minister â who knitted an unthinkable Brahmin-Dalit combination together in Uttar Pradesh during the 2007 Assembly election -- the support from Muslims is coming as a bonus.
It was the support the SP got from Muslims that prevented a complete washout of the SP in the last Assembly poll.
Earlier, political pundits had predicted an increase in the SP's vote share. At the initial stages, the SP's M-Y combination was in a formidable position. Add to it was the OBC vote bank that Mulayam thought Kalyan Singh would bring with himself.
The efforts that he is making to win over the Muslim clerics notwithstanding, Mulayam may find himself in a tight spot. Before he could recover from the jolt that Kalyan's entry into the SP had delivered, <b>Mulayam antagonised a large number of Muslim voters when he went all out to attack Mayawati for invoking NSA against Varun Gandhi</b>.
<b>"Both these actions - the handshake with Kalyan and opposing action against Varun - were unwarranted. How can he ask us to vote for his party,"</b> asked Taslimuddin, a tea vendor.
Ashutosh Kumar Gupta, who runs a STD booth opposite to Taslimuddin's tea stall, has every reason to feel that the Muslims were going to vote for Mayawati this time, at least in his area<b>. "Afzal Ansari rules the roost here</b>. How can his men vote for the SP when Ansari himself is contesting on a BSP ticket from Ghazipur," he said.
<b>Afzal and Mukhtar Ansari -- the two notorious brothers of UP politics whose names spell terror in Varanasi, Mau, Chandauli, Ghazipur and Mirzapur districts of eastern UP -</b>- have given away the 'bicycle' to ride on the 'elephant' this time. Moreover, BSP's Muslim face Naseemuddin Siddiqui is working hard to wean away Muslims from the SP. He recently organised a Muslim convention in Allahabad.
<b>The Muslim voters in eastern UP may not be speaking their minds, but there are enough indications that they would be voting for the strongest candidate who could defeat the BJP</b>. This would be a different kind of consolidation - against the BJP. Clearly, there is an inclination towards Mayawati. Even the Congress too would benefit in some seats like Bansgaon, where it would eat into the SP's Muslim vote bank.
The only relief for the SP is the popular belief among Muslims that Mayawati may support a BJP Government at Centre after the election, whereas Mulyama Singh would like to do business with the Congress. <b>Undoubtedly, a pre-poll tie-up between the SP and Congress would have proved a big challenge for both the BSP and BJP.</b>
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pioneer.com
Kumar Uttam | Ballia
Kalyan factor, criticising action against Varun may work against SP
Next to me on board a train from New Delhi to Mughal Sarai were two men, who were fresh graduates in their early twenties and about to take up marketing jobs.
Sarfaraz, one of them who used to be a staunch supporter of Mulayam Singh Yadav said: âBut, now I am not. How can he befriend Kalyan Singh who is responsible for the shahadat of the Babri Masjid? Mulayam has cheated our community.â
The worst that the SP had feared is apparently coming true: The Kalyan factor and Mulayamâs âsoft standâ on Varun Gandhi are taking their toll on the SPâs prospects. <b>Muslims, who constitute nearly 19 per cent of the total UP population, are not ready to blindly toe Mulayamâs line anymore.</b>
The eight-hour drive from Chandauli to Varanasi, then to Ghazipur and finally to Ballia (this constituency had elected former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar many times in a row) gave unmistakable signs that Mulayam Singh Yadavâs magical Yadav-Muslim combination was cracking.
Mayawati seems to be the biggest beneficiary. For the Chief Minister â who knitted an unthinkable Brahmin-Dalit combination together in Uttar Pradesh during the 2007 Assembly election -- the support from Muslims is coming as a bonus.
It was the support the SP got from Muslims that prevented a complete washout of the SP in the last Assembly poll.
Earlier, political pundits had predicted an increase in the SP's vote share. At the initial stages, the SP's M-Y combination was in a formidable position. Add to it was the OBC vote bank that Mulayam thought Kalyan Singh would bring with himself.
The efforts that he is making to win over the Muslim clerics notwithstanding, Mulayam may find himself in a tight spot. Before he could recover from the jolt that Kalyan's entry into the SP had delivered, <b>Mulayam antagonised a large number of Muslim voters when he went all out to attack Mayawati for invoking NSA against Varun Gandhi</b>.
<b>"Both these actions - the handshake with Kalyan and opposing action against Varun - were unwarranted. How can he ask us to vote for his party,"</b> asked Taslimuddin, a tea vendor.
Ashutosh Kumar Gupta, who runs a STD booth opposite to Taslimuddin's tea stall, has every reason to feel that the Muslims were going to vote for Mayawati this time, at least in his area<b>. "Afzal Ansari rules the roost here</b>. How can his men vote for the SP when Ansari himself is contesting on a BSP ticket from Ghazipur," he said.
<b>Afzal and Mukhtar Ansari -- the two notorious brothers of UP politics whose names spell terror in Varanasi, Mau, Chandauli, Ghazipur and Mirzapur districts of eastern UP -</b>- have given away the 'bicycle' to ride on the 'elephant' this time. Moreover, BSP's Muslim face Naseemuddin Siddiqui is working hard to wean away Muslims from the SP. He recently organised a Muslim convention in Allahabad.
<b>The Muslim voters in eastern UP may not be speaking their minds, but there are enough indications that they would be voting for the strongest candidate who could defeat the BJP</b>. This would be a different kind of consolidation - against the BJP. Clearly, there is an inclination towards Mayawati. Even the Congress too would benefit in some seats like Bansgaon, where it would eat into the SP's Muslim vote bank.
The only relief for the SP is the popular belief among Muslims that Mayawati may support a BJP Government at Centre after the election, whereas Mulyama Singh would like to do business with the Congress. <b>Undoubtedly, a pre-poll tie-up between the SP and Congress would have proved a big challenge for both the BSP and BJP.</b>
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