Big experiment of BJP in UP
Iyer writes that due to the large number of big cities in UP, there are 17 municipal corporations and the BJP won all the mayoral seats by fielding Hindu candidates. In smaller towns the local body is called Nagar Palika Panchayat and there out of 199 BJP candidates for the post of chairman, 32 were from the Muslim community and 5 won. Municipal Corporations have 1428 wards and Nagar Palika Panchayat has 5,327 wards. From this point of view, the number of Muslims among the total BJP candidates is very less. Many would say that Yogi Adityanath has made a small effort to bring Muslims together. Yet this change is much bigger than before.
The reason for the success of the Hindu nationalist BJP
Political experts say that looking back at history, the BJP sometimes gives tickets to Muslim candidates because it has an aggressive Hindu agenda. The BJP is a Hindu nationalist party and this is the secret of its success since the 1984 general elections. The party is secular in theory. There has always been a minority cell in the party. Even during Vajpayee-Advani era, she used to criticize Congress and called herself the only true secular party. She has been accusing the Congress of appeasement. But a lot has changed in 9 years of rule. BJP-ruled states made films like The Kashmir Files and The Kerala Story tax-free. Critics link these films to Islamophobia. In the Karnataka elections, the BJP projected itself as the savior of Hindus from the Islamic bigotry of the PFI.
Shia and Sunni maths
Aiyar further writes, “However, in the recent past, the BJP has started working towards getting a larger share of Muslim votes along with the support of Hindus. In the past two decades, the party garnered 6–10 percent of the Muslim vote in elections, mostly from the Shia Muslim community. While the Sunni majority has been supporting the Congress. But now the BJP has changed its strategy and tried to woo the Pasmanda Muslims. Pasmanda Muslims are considered Dalit and Backward Muslims.
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There are three categories of Indian Muslims – Ashrafs of the upper class, they come from the landlord or say rich class. The castes who adopted Islam from the upper castes of Hinduism come in this. On the second number are the Ajlaf or Backwards who became Muslims. Arjal comes at number three who is considered the lowest. These categories indicate their social and economic status. The Pasmandas come from the lower Muslim category.
BJP eyeing Pasmanda for 2024
The Pasmanda community has been demanding quota in government jobs for a long time. Many state governments have also given quota to Pasmanda i.e. poor Muslims. After this they started uniting and putting forth their demand firmly. Iyer says critics allege that UP CM Yogi Adityanath defames Muslims but he has made Danish Azad Ansari, who comes from Pasmanda community, a minister. At one time, the Congress party had run a campaign to give quota to Pasmanda, then the BJP used to criticize. But now BJP is seeing Pasmanda vote bank. The UP civic elections were a test of this formula. According to an estimate, 90 percent of BJP’s Muslim candidates were from Pasmanda. It is clear from the success of this strategy in UP that BJP can include this strategy in the 2024 general elections.
Muslims constitute 15 per cent of the total vote. Even if 10th part votes for BJP then it will be 1.5% of the total vote. Some elections are lost by margins of less than 1 per cent, in which case this strategy could be crucial for the BJP. It is understood that in the 2024 general elections, the BJP may give tickets to more Pasmanda Muslims.
