HVK Archives: Muslims lobby for a CM of their own choice
Muslims lobby for a CM of their own choice - The Indian Express
Rahul Karmakar
()
7 October 1996
Title : Muslims lobby for a CM of their own choice
Author : Rahul Karmakar
Publication : The Indian Express
Date : October 7, 1996
Realising the importance they have come to occupy in all
the parties' scheme of things in Uttar Pradesh, Muslims
are now pushing for a chief minister belonging to the
community.
Prominent Islamic leaders backing the Bahujan Samaj Party
(BSP) have hinted that in case the party - in alliance
with the Congress - manages to form a government in Uttar
Pradesh, a Muslim should head it. Though no names have
been put forward, the leaders have indicated that they
will "raise the issue at the right time."
With many contenders already for the post - Mayawati
included - the condition has upset the BSP calculations.
Particularly, as the party cannot afford to lose Muslim
support, with the Samajwadi Party (SP) of Mulayam Singh
Yadav ready to jump right in to take its place.Already,
the state's Muslims are sharply divided between the two.
While the Saharanpur-based Deoband sect is supporting the
SP and the United Front (UF), the Rae Bareilly-based
Barelvi sect has found a new friend in the BSP, after
divorcing first from the Congress and then the SP.
Unfortunately for Mulayam, the Barelvi school of thought
claims a following of 80-85 per cent of Indian Muslims.
As a result, almost all the 24 per cent Muslim voters in
the state are likely to vote for the B S P.
The SP's only hope is the disagreement among leaders of
the sect over whether their support should extend to the
BSP ally, the Congress, or not. The Naib Imam of Delhi's
Jama Masjid, Abdullah Bukhari, had made it very clear
that Muslims would support only the BSP on its 300 seats.
As for the Congress - which is contesting in the other
125 constituencies - he had said, "The community cannot
forgive it for its underhand involvement in the destruc-
tion of the Babri Masjid."
On the other hand, Maulana Tauseef Raza Khan, head of the
Barelvi sect and a member of the All-India Jamait-ul-
Awaam, had reiterated that Muslims would stand by the BSP
and the Congress both, as the latter had produced several
chief ministers in the country.
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