UP polls: Mayawati’s 97 tickets to Muslims haven’t ensured loyalty yet

VARANASI/ALLAHABAD/AZAMGARH: Mayawati's ploy of giving 97 tickets to Muslims doesn't seem to be driving any major shift in the political loyalties of the minority community to her Bahujan Samaj Party from the ruling Samajwadi Party. At least, that is what an interaction with voters in eastern UP suggests.
"She has given tickets to more Muslims for her self-interest and nothing else," said Zumman Khan, a middle-aged villager at Lalganj in Chhanbe assembly segment in Mirzapur district.His sentiment is echoed by his fellowman Aas Mohammed, who said he did attend a Muslim Bhaichara meeting addressed by Mayawati's associate Naseemuddin Siddiqui at nearby Barondha, but that he was “not convinced".
"It's SP which is my first preference. I hope the father-son duo resolve their dispute amicably," Lal Mohammed of Chandait village in the Mughalsarai assembly segment said, while referring to the feud within the SP between Mulayam Singh Yadav and son Akhilesh Yadav. “In case of split, I favour Akhilesh.”
The village, bordering Varanasi, has Dalits as majority population, but that doesn't seem to nudge him to suggest the BSP as his preference. His fellow villager Sudama, a Dalit, however, assertively announces his support for Mayawati.
The outcome of the fight between SP founder Mulayam and his chief minister son holds great importance to Mayawati in her efforts towards a Dalit-Muslim social engineering.
"It's only when Netaji (Mulayam) is not with Akhilesh, then we can consider going to BSP," said Mohammed Changez Khan, a middle-aged man at Chiraiyakot in the Mohammadabad-Gohana assembly segment.
"We'll vote for BSP," Salahuddin, another middle-aged farmer at Paharpur-Kalan village at Saidpur, said during a roadside discussion involving members from the Dalit and Yadav communities. He, however, comes aside when this reporter is about to leave to tell in hushed tones that his preference was the SP. But without Mulayam, the choice will waver as Akhilesh will shun influential Ansari brothers — whose Qaumi Ekta Dal was merged into SP last summers.
In fact, most of the Muslim respondents ET came across during the tour of Pratapgarh, Allahabad, Kaushambi, Mirzapur, Robertsganj, Varanasi, Chandauli, Ghazipur and Azamgarh districts mentioned the SP as their first preference. What should alarm Mayawati is that not only very few are mentioning the BSP in Eastern UP, but also none of them referred to the party’s much publicised decision to give 97 tickets to Muslim community members.
So, Changez and Salahuddin's preference for the BSP turns out to be conditional upon the Mulayam-Akhilesh split without which they suggest their votes are the SP.
Incidentally, many respondents do not wish to engage about their electoral preference when questioned about their choices in the eventuality of a Mulayam-Akhilesh split.
In fact, most of the Muslim respondents rooting for the SP plays down the feud with a refrain that "it's an internal wrangling within the family" and express confidence that "ultimately they will remain together like in any family quarrel".
"We still don't think Mulayam and Akhilesh have parted ways. It's the usual father-son quarrel, they will remain together," said Abdul Qayum of Anjanshahid village in Sagri in Azamgarh district.