Lucknow: Voting to retain their lost electoral significance, the Muslim community – which comprises roughly 19% of the state’s population – managed to make its electoral presence felt in the 70-odd seats where the community forms at least 30% of population. Several prominent Muslim candidates fielded by the Samajwadi Party either emerged victories or were leading till late evening.
The community, however, was keeping its fingers crossed for improving its 2017 tally of 24 Muslim MLAs — lowest ever since Indendence — that made it to the assembly. This was primarily because of the surprisingly poor performance of the BSP and Congress candidates. With not a single Muslim candidate from the BSP or the Congress leading in any of the constituencies, all hope now rests with the SP.
Total 36 Muslim mlas this time as compared to 24 in 2017. This time while the SP fielded much number of Muslim candidates — 64 — primarily in an attempt to shed the tag of its MY (Muslim – Yadav) combination being its core constituency, the BSP fielded 88 Muslims while the Congress fielded another 75. Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM, too, fielded over 60 candidates from the community. Though the manner in which the community voted, it appears mostly SP remained the top choice of Muslims, BSP and AIMIM also got the support of the community in some seats. However, at the most they played spoilsport for the SP candidates who were trailing by slender margins.
Some noticeable names that made it through include jailed SP veteran and party’s Muslim face Mohammed Azam Khan who was ahead with a sizeable margin in Rampur. Suar, his son Abdullah Azam Khan was comfortably ahead till late evening. Another name that made headlines during the poll campaigns – SP’s Nahid Hasan – was declared elected from Kairana assembly. In Mau Sadar, mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s son Abbas Ansari, who contested on Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party’s (SBSP’s) symbol, is learnt to have sailed through but the result was awaiting a formal announcement till late evening. Similarly in Mohammadabad, Mukhtar Ansari’s nephew and former MLA Sibagtulla Ansari’s son Suhaib alias Mannu Ansari, who contested on SP’s symbol, was leading with 6,211 votes against BJP MLA Alka Rai when reports last came in. In Nizamabad, SP veteran Alam Badi and Rafiq Ansari (Meerut) were also leading.
Courtesy : TOI
Note: This news piece was originally published in timesofindia.com and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights objectives.
Trending Now
You may also like
