Sonia apology softens UP Muslims

What this shift’, however marginal it may be, in the Muslim community’s perception of the Congress could mean is that the party will be strengthened further in constituencies where its candidate is strong or is a Muslim. The Congress, it may be recalled, fared miserably in 1996, winning just five of the 85 seats it contested and tallying a scant 8 per cent of the votes polled in the State. Therefore, it is fair toexpect that the Congress this time could improve its vote share without necessarily improving its seat-count.

On the flip side is the benefit that accrues to the Bharatiya Janata Party because the Congress is seen as less of an ogre now by Muslims. If the minority vote gets divided between Mulayam Samajwadi Party and the Congress in the main, the BJP will be the natural beneficiary. What this also means is that there is trouble ahead for Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose Muslim-Yadav catchment area could shrink. Small wonder then that Mulayam perceives in the Congress a third enemy flank (after the BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party) and has been attacking that party vigorously.

“Last time, the Congress was an unmentionable word,” Riyasat Hussain in Chowdhurpur village in Moradabad says. “This time the party will not be ignored en bloc by us,” he added. Fifty-five per cent of Moradabad’s electorate is Muslim. The Congress has fielded Hafiz Mohammed Siddiqui.

In Meerut town, the turnaround was even moreobvious. “Hum roothe the, man gaye hain (We had turned our face away from the Congress, now we have been brought around),” says Jamaluddin Ansari of Islamabad, as he sipped tea at a kiosk in this mohalla dominated by weavers. Ansaris number around 1.5 lakh among roughly 3.75 Muslim voters in Meerut.

Sonia Gandhi’s rally in Meerut on February 8 was well attended — the largest Meerut has seen in a long time. Ziaullah Ansari, another weaver, is clear in his mind: “Though, not everyone who had gone would vote for the Congress, we are going to vote for the party this time after 14 years, because of Sonia.” Mulayam could take comfort from the fact that his appeal among Muslims at the State level may still be intact. “We like Mulayam Singh. We will vote for him in an MLA election. But he can only go up to 25 Lok Sabha seats at the most. But Sonia is a contender for power at the Centre. We cannot find anybody else. Only the Congress can take on the BJP.

Our businesses have been lying idle for a longtime,” observes Ziaullah.Though they have not given up Mulayam yet, some are unhappy with him for not fielding enough Muslim candidates. And where he has put them up,it is in constituencies like Baghpat where they do not stand a chance of winning.

Across the board, Muslims expressed happiness that the Congress had denied P V Narasimha Rao a ticket. According to Hafiz Mohammed in Sambhal, some Muslims in the town had distributed laddoos the day the party had decided not to give Rao a ticket.

The rural folk seem happy with the Congress’ apology, while the politically more vocal ones dismiss it as a vote getting gimmick. “Politicians do anything for votes. They even pick up babies and do not mind them peeing on them. It would have been different had Sonia Gandhi expressed regret even six months earlier,” said Anwar in Atrasi village. But an old carpet weaver had a different view: “By acknowledging their mistakes, they have done the right thing!”