UP: Amid Ghosi Bypolls on Tuesday, Muslims Allege Threats, Intimidation

Lucknow: Irfan Ansari looks tense as he walks in his own verandah in Ghosi, in Eastern UP's Mau district. Ansari has voted in every election in the past 30 years. But this year, with institutionalised tension in the air during the region's upcoming Assembly bypolls, he is in a fix.

While regionally the election focus is fixed on wooing voters from dalit and other backward class (OBC) communities in a bid to get them to vote for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Dara Singh Chauhan, Muslims are suffering silently amid the power struggle between political parties.

Speaking with NewsClick, Haji Ghufran, a Communist Party of India (CPI) leader, said that there are four towns -- Ghosi, Kopaganj, Adari and Puraghat -- where Muslims are a sizable population. But, the administration has been creating a fear psychosis by increasing police patrolling round the clock with massive forces even threatening members of the minority community to not go anywhere near the polling booths, he said.

"With heavy police presence in Muslim areas, the circle officer (CO) city and Kotwal is creating an atmosphere of fear in the localities. The situation is so tense, as if communal violence will break out or has already happened,” said Ghufran.

The CPl leader alleged that the CO, along with dozens of cops, has been visiting Muslim areas and threatening children not to play on the road, interrogating the management of a madrasa about students and their identity and asking them to close the hostel till the election is over.

“A police officer even said that Muslims cast fake votes, and while threatening them, even asked them whether they remember what happened in the Rampur bypoll," Ghufran alleged.

The CPI leader said the kotwal had called a meeting of all village heads in which mostly Muslims and Yadavs were present. They were "threatened to vote for BJP or not go to the polling booth on Tuesday to vote, else face the consequences."

A Muslim voter from Kopaganj also told NewsClick that he was summoned by police officers from Ghosi who asked him to make his 'community' vote for BJP.

Some local residents also alleged that the police administration was “gearing up to prevent Muslim voters from voting by stating that if the name on their identification documents does not match the exact name present on the voter's list, they will not be allowed to cast a vote.”

Also, there is a sense of panic among Muslims in Ghosi, as a rumour is doing the rounds that the CO of Rampur would be present there on election day.

Taking cognizance of the fear and tension in these areas, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Shivpal Yadav on Monday accused Uttar Pradesh police officials of threatening voters of Ghosi Assembly constituency ahead of the bypoll and demanded action against them.

The national general secretary SP, along with 10 legislators, including former minister Durga Prasad Yadav, sitting MLAs Alam Badi Azmi, Nafees Ahmed and outgoing district head Havildar Yadav met Inspector General of Police Akhilesh Kumar and demanded action against the officials who were "threatening" voters.

"BJP is using money and muscle power to win the bypoll. Muslim villages and representatives are being threatened to prevent them from voting," Nafees Ahmad, the sitting MLA from SP, told NewsClick.

The Opposition SP has submitted memoranda to the state election commissioner, accusing the BJP-led administration of "trying to influence" the Ghosi Assembly bypoll on Sunday.

Last year, SP members had blamed police atrocities for the low turnout during the  Rampur Assembly bypolls. Polling had started on a dull note, followed by alleged complaints by SP leaders that Muslim voters, especially burqa-clad women, were allegedly not allowed to cast their votes and multiple scrutiny by the district administration had forced them to stay at home. NewsClick had reported this then.

Read Also: UP Bypolls: Slow Turnout, Clash, Burqa-Clad Women ‘Stopped’ From Casting Vote

With the Ghosi election campaign ending on Sunday, the stage is set for voting on September 5.

The seat fell vacant after Dara Singh Chauhan, the sitting MLA who crossed over to the saffron party from SP, resigned from the seat, seeking re-election. He has the support of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parties — Apna Dal (Sonelal), the NISHAD Party and the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP).

The bypoll, which was necessitated following Chauhan’s resignation, will have no bearing on the BJP government, which enjoys a comfortable majority in the 403-member state legislative Assembly.

However, its outcome is important as it could be an indicator of what is in store for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as Uttar Pradesh sends 80 MPs to the Lower House of Parliament.

A win for BJP would provide it psychological advantage ahead of the 2024 general elections. While a loss would be a morale booster for the Opposition INDIA bloc.

Read Also: UP’s Ghosi By-Poll Prestige Battle Between SP, BJP Before 2024

Of the nearly 4.38 lakh voters in Ghosi, 90,000 are Muslims, 60,000 dalits and 77,000 from the “upper castes” — 45,000 bhumihars, 16,000 rajputs and 6,000 brahmins, according to estimates. Counting for the bypoll will be held on September 8.

Besides the Congress and the Left parties, SP’s Sudhakar Singh, who is taking on Chauhan, also has the support of INDIA bloc members Aam Aadmi Party, the CPI(ML)-Liberation and the Suheldev Swabhiman Party (SSP) — a splinter group of the SBSP.

Those who canvassed for Chauhan included UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak and leaders of BJP-led NDA members. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Yadav were among the main campaigners for Singh.

There are 10 candidates in the fray for the Ghosi assembly seat in Mau district. The Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has not fielded any candidate.

The bypoll is also being seen as an opportunity for the ruling BJP dispensation to assert its hold in Uttar Pradesh. On the other side, if SP registers a win, it will strengthen Yadav’s position and role within the Opposition INDIA bloc, and also seal his candidature for leading the bloc in the state during the general elections.

On Sunday, Yadav had appealed to voters in Ghosi to support his party’s candidate and “teach the BJP, which purchases MLAs, a lesson”.

BSP APPEALS FOR NOTA

Meanwhile, ahead of polling on Tuesday, BSP’s state unit president Vishwanath Pal said there was a need to make the anti-defection law stricter as people switching parties closer to polls for selfish gains impacted democracy in a negative way.

Pal was making an apparent reference to a series of defections from both BSP and SP to BJP in recent months, with seven BJP MLAs joining the SP. One of the MLAs and also a minister, Swami Prasad Maurya, a popular backward leader, had been associated with BSP for the best part of his career before he joined BJP in 2016. He is now with SP.

"We have decided to boycott such elections. Our people will boycott the elections. Even those who go will press NOTA," Pal said.

Dalits, considered to be the core voters of BSP, could play a decisive role in the Ghosi seat. The results of the past three elections reveal that the BSP's hold on the seat with more than 90,000 dalit voters is still strong. In 2022, BSP candidate Wasim Iqbal got 54,248 votes. In the 2019 bypoll, BSP's Abdul Qayyum Ansari got 50,775 votes and in 2017, BSP's Abbas Ansari bagged 81,295 votes.

This time round, the Ghosi bypoll is a straight fight between BJP’s Chouhan and SP’s Singh, who is being backed by Congress and Rashtriya Lok Dal. Interestingly, Chauhan won this seat in the 2022 polls on a SP ticket. He quit SP to join BJP in July this year, which necessitated the bypoll.