After 10 years,BJP turns to a Muslim candidate

Saifi is confident of his victory,as Muslims form the largest chunk of the constituency with 80,000 votes,followed by 60,000 Yadav and 30,000 Jatav. Saifi says that his contest is with the BSP candidate,Meer Hadi Ali alias Babar Ali,though Parivartan Dal candidate D P Yadav and SP’s Onkar Singh Yadav are also in the fray.

According to Saifi,the BJP has fielded him “to test the inclination of Muslims”. During the past one year the party has worked hard to attract Muslim voters,he claims and says that if he wins,“the party can think of fielding Muslim candidates in 2014 Lok Sabha polls on a few seats in UP”. He has requested the party to ask former chief minister Rajnath Singh,national vice-presidents Kalraj Mishra,Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi,Hema Malini and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj to campaign in his constituency.

Badaun district president Prem Swaroop Pathak claims that Saifi can give a good fight,but at the same time admits that many of his partymen are unhappy over the decision to field him. “Saifi has not been very active in the party. Still,the party preferred him over Daya Sindhu Shankhdhar who had contested on BJP ticket here in the past and had also been very active since 1991,” Pathak says.

Saifi had joined the BJP in 2004 after he lost the Lok Sabha election as a Navbharat Nirman Party candidate. Prior to that he was with the BSP for 17 years. “I joined the BSP in 1986 and worked with Kanshi Ram. I left the party in 2003 when I realised that it was functioning against Kanshi Ram’s ideology,” he says. A few months ago he sent his resume to BJP’s national incharge of minority morcha J K Jain,and requested for the party ticket. He is the only Muslim candidate that the BJP has fielded in the current elections.

The party had not fielded any Muslim candidate in 2007. In 2002 Assembly elections,the BJP had given ticket to one Muslim candidate — Mohammad Gaffar Khan from Tilhar. Khan was also the BJP’s only Muslim candidate in 1996. In between,the party had fielded Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi from Mau in 1993 and 1991.