Yet again, Mulayam ‘poses’ as prophet

Says Kamal Farooqui, of the All-India Milli Council and member of the Muslim Personal Law Board, which had led the battle for the ban of the ad last month, ‘‘Mulayam Yadav is taking the name of Allah and the Prophet once again. But who is making him Allah or the Prophet? The only reason we are not raising a storm this time is because it will create confusion in the Muslim mind and divide the votes, now that the elections are going on.’’

Farooqui and the Milli Council have reason to be cautious as they are playing a significant and critically interventionist role in steering Muslim sentiment and voting preferences in the on-going polls.

For instance, in the first phase of the election in the state (April 26), out of the 32 constituencies that went to poll, the Council strategically divided the constituencies according to the ‘‘power, influence and win-ability’’ of the non-BJP parties and asked the community to vote for it accordingly.

So, the Congress got 11 seats, the SP got 14 seats, the BSP got three, while in the remaining four seats, the Milli left for the people to decide. In the second phase of elections, which begins tomorrow, the Milli has asked the community to vote the Congress in six constituencies the SP in 20 seats, the BSP gets two apart from Ram Jethmalani in Lucknow. For the last phase on May 10, the Council has asked the community to give its support to the Congress in six seats the SP in two and, Ajit Singh’s RLD in four seats.