UP Local Body Polls Will be Acid Test for BJP’s Pasmanda Muslim Outreach

The upcoming urban local body (ULB) elections in Uttar Pradesh will be a litmus test for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Muslim outreach. The staunch Hindutva party has fielded nearly 350 Muslim candidates for elections scheduled to be held in May 2023.

To test the waters of its popularity among Muslims, the BJP has given tickets to Muslim candidates for several posts, from the president of Nagar Palikas to counsellors of the Municipal Corporations (Nagar Nigam).

In the politically significant state of Uttar Pradesh, elections across 760 ULBs will be held for 14,684 posts, including 17 mayoral seats and 1,420 councillor posts, in two phases on May 4 and May 11. The results will be declared on May 13.

BJP's ‘New Experiment’

Speaking with Newsclick, Kunwar Basit Ali, chairman of BJP’s minority cell, said in a new experiment, his party had announced nearly 350 Muslim candidates so far for the ULP elections.

"We are considering fielding more Muslim candidates, and around a 100 more will be announced soon," he added. Ali also confirmed that the BJP did not field any Muslim candidates for the post of Mayor.

The BJP is eyeing Pasmanda (those who have been socially left behind or are backward) Muslims and has, therefore, given them the maximum tickets. Notably, in Uttar Pradesh, Muslims comprise nearly 20% of the total population. Leaders of Pasmanda Muslims claim they make up about 85% of the community's population in the state.

However, the party has not announced any sops for the community. The party leadership believes that Muslim beneficiaries of its populist schemes, such as free ration distribution, would vote for it.

An Eyewash?

However, the Pasmanda leadership in UP sees the BJP's Muslim outreach as an "eyewash." Akram Ansari of Momin Ansar Sabha told this writer that the BJP fielded several Muslim candidates but never made any effort to connect with the community on the ground to know their grievances.

According to Ansari, the hate speeches and threats of the leaders of the Right-wing ecosystem have stopped the community from getting close to BJP.

Besides this, a debate is also going on across the political spectrum about the BJP’s real intent behind giving tickets to Muslims. It is widely believed that the party’s aim is to widen the fault lines among various Muslims based on their social status.

Attacks on Muslims

Political commentators also believe it is an uphill task for the BJP to win the trust of Muslims, as the party follows the playbook of the Sangh Parivar, which has no space for Muslims.

The Muslim community has been facing a wide range of humiliation and discrimination since saffron dominance increased in power in 2014. The hostility of the Right-wing ecosystem towards Muslims has made their lives difficult.

Persistent attacks on the lives, culture, education of the community, and even interference in their personal laws have made Muslims more wary of the saffron party. The number of incidents of lynchings by cow vigilantes and violence seen during some Hindu festivals have also deepened the fault lines between BJP and Muslims.

Resentment against the ruling dispensation has been brewing among the largest minority community in the country, as in the past few years, Hindutva leaders have been relentlessly spewing venom against them, threatening them, and calling for boycotting Muslims economically. Some leading Right-wingers have also targeted revered figures, including the Prophet.

Muslims Consolidation

The Muslim community has consolidated itself more than ever after the massive protests against the discriminatory citizenship law (CAA), during which they faced massive violence in Northeast Delhi and a police crackdown in BJP-ruled states, such as UP. Recently, the Supreme Court stayed Muslim reservation, which the poll-bound BJP-led Karnataka government is attempting to abolish.

So, what does BJP giving so many tickets to Muslims in the local body polls mean?

Samiratmaj Mishra, former bureau chief of BBC, told this writer that earlier, too, BJP had fielded Muslim candidates in Assembly and general elections, but this time it is propagating it more. He pointed out that BJP had inducted Danish Ansari into the Yogi Adityanath government and is attempting to woo the Pasamandas, to whom the minister belongs.

"It cannot be ruled out that Muslims are angry with the saffron brigade. Their anger is because of the discrimination they have been facing and the crackdown they have faced under BJP governments," he added.

Mishra said, "In such adverse circumstances, I do not think they will vote for BJP," adding that "if any BJP candidate wins, it will be due to personality, not the party that fielded him/her."

Incidentally, the BJP has also nominated Tariq Mansoor, former Aligarh Muslim University Vice-Chancellor, to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, as part of its Muslim outreach.

The upcoming ULB polls are being seen as a "semi-final" for political parties ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in the state, which sends 80 parliamentarians to the Lower House.

BJP’s Pasmanda Outreach

Following signals from Prime Minister Narendra to reach out to Muslims during BJP’s Hyderabad convention in August last year, the party has been attempting to connect to "Pasmanda" Muslims in UP since October 2022.

Some state BJP leaders claim they have been persistently running a campaign to woo Pasmanda Muslims in the past few months through meetings, conferences, etc.

Question of political representation

Political observers, however, believe that in the ULB polls, party symbols are least significant, as people usually vote for personalities.

Wasi Raza, professor of political science at Shia Degree College, observed that in local body polls, voter behaviour is different from the Assembly and general elections. "A candidate's personality carries more weight than the party symbol," he told this writer.

On Muslim resentment against BJP, Raza said another reason was the question of political representation. “BJP is not giving them political representation. There has been no minister in the Narendra Modi government since Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi's Rajya Sabha tenure ended,” he noted.

This is the first government at the Centre after Independence in which there is no Muslim representation in the Council of Ministers and no Muslim is an elected member in the ruling party.

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Uttar Pradesh. The views are personal.