In an indication of the churning that has been formally inaugurated in UP after the announcement of poll dates,Shahid Siddiqui has quit the Rashtriya Lok Dal,which recently entered into an alliance with the Congress. He is poised to go back to the Samajwadi Party,which he left in 2008. Hours after sending his letter of resignation to Ajit Singh today,Siddiqui cited the RLDs tie-up with the Congress as a reason for his latest decision. There was no consultation on the alliance with the UPA. The Congress has shortchanged the RLD. Many seats that we (the RLD) could win easily have been taken by the Congress, he said. When he joined the RLD last year,he hoped that a Muslim-Jat-Backward Caste alliance would work to the benefit of minorities in UP,said Siddiqui. But that expectation proved too optimistic because I saw that only Jats matter (for the RLD). the problem is that secular parties look upon Muslims only as vote banks,never as partners,he said,describing the UPAs move to carve out a 4.5 per cent sub-quota for Muslims on the eve of UP polls a hoax. The quota will not help the Muslims,only the BJP will gain, he said. But evidently,not all secular parties are to be tarred with the same brush. The SP is different,according to Siddiqui,because it is more dependent on the Muslim vote. As he leaves the RLD,Siddiqui has more kind words for the SP,because ultimately,in UP,there is no alternative to joining hands with the SP to fight Mayawatis misgovernance. The Congress,according to him,has failed to emerge as an alternative,and smaller parties like the Peace Party are media creations. Then,his main point of opposition to the SP when he left it to join the BSP in 2008 its about-turn on the Indo-US nuclear deal has receded into the background. The SP has also realised that supporting the n-deal was not wise,Siddiqui added,by way of explanation for his evident re-appraisal of Netajis party. Once the chairman of minorities cell in the Congress,Siddiqui has earned himself a formidable reputation as a political traveller. At last count,the journalist-academic-turned-politician who has been slotted as a Muslim face of whichever party he has been in has been in the Congress,SP,BSP and RLD.
