Mewat puts party before personality

NUH: If voting trends here were anything to go by, Indian National Lok Dal appears to have got overwhelming backing in the Meo-Muslim belt of Mewat district. The reasons spanned the breadth of ground realities that voters had to live with, from hopes of greater employment to keeping communalism at bay. A lack of Hindu voters added another dimension to the electoral dynamic here, one that is likely to benefit Zakir Hussain, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) contender for the Gurgaon parliamentary constituency.
While walking out of a polling booth in Gasshera village, a sexagenarian Muslim voter revealed that he had voted for Hussain, not because of a religious connect but because of the party he represented.
"The Chautalas got jailed for getting jobs for our kids. We want to help INLD leaders in their time of adversity," he said.
Another voter, Mohammad Asad, who is the former sarpanch of the same village, also voted for Hussain because he wants to keep communal forces away from politics. Akhtar Hussain, another villager, voted for the same candidate because the latter belonged to Mewat.
There were exceptions as well, mainly among Hindu voters in villages such as Bajghera, Ujina, and those in Muslim-dominated villages. Their votes were split between Congress and BJP.
"I will not support Congress because it did nothing for women empowerment. I will give a chance to the BJP. If my expectations are not met, I will press NOTA from next time," said Sunita Rani, a non-Muslim woman from Nuh.
What could actually tilt the scale significantly in Hussain's favour is a minimal number of Hindu votes in the area. Of a total of 4.75 lakh voters, barely 1.25 lakh are Hindu.
"Through the reports we got from 125 villages gathered by six reporters and 12 volunteers, 100 villages have expressed support for the INLD candidate. We got nearly 250 calls on polling day, with most admitting allegiance to Hussain," said Ajendra Singh, manager, Radio Mewat, a local radio station.
Reportedly, Congress also extracted some votes from the region but suffered a setback because of a controversial comment made by Rao Dharampal some time ago which did not go down well with the Muslims here. "He had said that the land on which Eidgah was built in Palam Vihar belonged to HUDA and should have been returned to the development authority. This angered the locals here," said a local villager in Jaisingpur of Nuh.