M has been silenced in opposition politics from UP to Bihar. This ‘M’ with M-Y was once popular in politics. For almost a decade, the new BJP led by Modi-Yogi has proved this coin wrong. Although these coins jingle in the treasury of the opposition, the owners of the treasury do not want to pay the price of this jingling. Even mutilated notes have their value, but the ‘M’ (Muslim Vote Bank) coin, which used to be very popular in the political market, is silent.
In the election season of Bihar, even though India is competing with NDA, the face to face fight is between BJP and NDA. In such a situation, the onus of challenging BJP is more on Tejashwi Yadav. He is also fighting very hard. The main base of RJD has been M-Y, but here in Bihar too, like in UP, Muslim votes are a big support for RJD which is giving direct competition to BJP, but Tejashwi Yadav is seen ignoring the Muslim community from the distribution of Muslim tickets to the election campaign.
Muslims in dilemma
Congress has alliance with SP in UP and RJD in Bihar. In both the states, Congress was an option due to the neglect of SP-RJD, but Congress is with these parties. Talking about UP, BSP was a big option for the Muslim community here but it also lost its trust considering it as BJP’s B team. SP, RJD, Congress are ignoring and BSP is the B team of BJP, then where should the Muslims go?
One option is that Muslims should give a befitting reply to the neglect being done by secular parties by establishing a relationship of trust with BJP. And the second option is to vote unilaterally for AIMI’s Asaduddin Owaisi and consider him as our party. But if the Muslim community unites by accepting AIMIM as its party, then it is certain that the 80-20 division in polarization will make the BJP invincible and the Muslim community will be able to participate in power. And the results of polarization resulted in the Muslim community getting a share in power.
In view of these truths, this silent appeal of the intelligentsia of the Muslim community has been circulating in the society that despite being ignored, they should unite and support parties like SP, RJD and Congress and the Muslim community should vote as much as possible. In the messages issued, it is being said that do not be lax in voting by ignoring secular parties, change of power is the biggest need. Later we will take our rights from those parties whom we will vote for and win.
Tejashwi following Akhilesh’s footsteps
The scholars of Bihar are giving statements that Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Tejashwi Yadav is ignoring the Muslim society. Following the footsteps of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi is avoiding giving place to Muslim leaders on election platforms. They are avoiding even talking about the issues of poverty, their problems and needs. In terms of population and support/huge vote bank, Muslim share in ticket distribution is very less. Not only this, RJD’s partner Congress also has the same stance. Considering the Muslim population of around seventeen percent, India Alliance has fielded very few Muslim candidates in Bihar.
Tejashwi’s altercation with Owaisi
Even though the MLAs of AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi have broken away and joined RJD, Owaisi had proved that by winning five seats in the last assembly elections in Bihar, he has created his support base in the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal of Bihar. It is a different matter that four MLAs broke away and joined RJD.
Here one IMIM requested to be included in the India alliance, put pressure on it but still did not get entry in India. After which Owaisi’s party formed an alliance with UP leader Swami Prasad Maurya and Chandrashekhar Azad’s Azad Samaj Party. Here, on the question of alliance with Asaduddin Owaisi, Tejashwi very coldly said that if we make an alliance with everyone, then how many seats will we have? Such an indifferent reply showed that he was not ready to make even the slightest sacrifice to prevent the Muslim community’s votes from getting scattered.
Secular parties also started getting cut off from Muslim society
There is a common reason for the successes of BJP for more than a decade – “This party is committed to the upliftment, development, progress, protection and security of the Sanatani people. This message got stuck in the hearts of the Hindu society, not only this, a perception was created about the non-BJP parties that these parties do Muslim appeasement in the name of secularism and are anti-Hindu. Sanatan Dharma and Sanatani cannot remain safe under the power of these parties.
Without breaking this perception of BJP, non-BJP parties cannot survive. Due to this realization, the parties which consider the ideology of secularism supreme no longer want to be seen caring for extra Muslims in any way.
SP wants to erase the image of Muslim favoritism and appeasement
Especially in Uttar Pradesh, by accusing the Samajwadi Party of being a pro-Muslim party, BJP formed the government with a strong majority twice in Uttar Pradesh and Yogi Adityanath created history in the state by becoming the Chief Minister for the second consecutive time after nearly four and a half decades. By becoming the biggest face of Hindutva, Yogi established himself as a big leader at the national level. After the marginalization of Congress and then BSP in Uttar Pradesh, which became the center of country’s politics after the Ayodhya dispute, and the huge increase in BJP’s support base, SP is established in the role of one-sided opposition.
Now forty percent votes are needed to fight BJP
In such a situation, to fight BJP, it is necessary for SP to win the trust of the majority (Hindu society) to have more than forty percent support base. And for this, party chief Akhilesh Yadav started working on the PDA formula to bring non-Yadav backward castes and Dalits with him. They knew that like before, power cannot be achieved by getting 25-30 percent votes through MY factor. In earlier times, SP, BSP, Congress and BJP all had more or less but decent strength, in such a situation they would come to power by securing twenty-five to thirty percent of the votes.
Now MY is not going to work
Once upon a time, SP’s MY (Muslim-Yadav) formula used to be effective for victory when it came to power in UP by securing 27 percent votes. In order to increase his support base against BJP, Akhilesh has tried to include Dalits and non-Yadav backward castes and also to break the perception that his party is not only beneficial for the Muslim community and Yadavs but the welfare of the entire society, especially backward classes, Dalits, deprived, farmers, laborers and youth is paramount for him. In order to reach this message to the public, SP now started avoiding taking extra care of the Muslim community. SP is engaged in a grassroots struggle to win the hearts of Dalits and non-Yadav castes.
Yogi stopped the disintegration of Sanatanis
Especially in Uttar Pradesh, by accusing the Samajwadi Party of being a pro-Muslim party, BJP formed the government with a strong majority twice in Uttar Pradesh and Yogi Adityanath created history in the state by becoming the Chief Minister for the second consecutive time after nearly four and a half decades. By becoming the biggest face of Hindutva, Yogi established himself as a big leader at the national level. Like UP, Yogi Adityanath is holding indiscriminate public meetings in Bihar to break the spell of caste politics.
After the marginalization of Congress and then BSP in Uttar Pradesh, which became the center of country’s politics after the Ayodhya dispute, and the huge increase in BJP’s support base, SP is established in the role of one-sided opposition. In such a situation, to fight BJP, it is necessary for SP to win the trust of the majority (Hindu society) to have more than forty percent support base. And for this, party chief Akhilesh Yadav started working on the PDA formula to bring non-Yadav backward castes and Dalits with him. They knew that like before, power cannot be achieved by getting 25-30 percent votes through MY factor. Be it Akhilesh Yadav or Tejashwi Yadav, both the opposition leaders of both the states, after forming an alliance with the Congress, are confident that their biggest Muslim vote bank cannot go anywhere even after being ignored. Because there is no option anywhere. BSP and Owaisi have also been considered as the team of BJP. And if Muslims go with Owaisi, then BJP will become invincible in the polarization of 80-20 and the Muslim community will lose its share of power.