This time Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has again played the Muslim card on Haridwar and Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar seats. BSP has fielded Muslim candidates from both these seats. By doing this, BSP has also tried to bring Muslim voters to its side. BSP’s strategy is that if the votes of Muslim community along with Scheduled Castes are also mobilized in favor of the party, then the party can perform well on these seats. BSP is established as the third largest party in the state. BSP candidates have been registering victory in the assembly elections, but the party has not yet been able to open its account in the Lok Sabha elections.
You get good votes but you get defeat.
BSP candidates have been getting good votes in the Lok Sabha elections, but victory has eluded them. In Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar, Scheduled Castes are considered the traditional vote bank of BSP and whenever Muslim voters have come with BSP in elections, its performance has improved. This has also been seen in the state. This is the reason why the party has performed better in these areas in the assembly elections.
Three Muslim candidates won
Seven candidates of the party had won in the first assembly elections held after the formation of the state. Three of the winning candidates were from the Muslim community. Among these, Shahzad had won from Bahadrabad seat of Haridwar and Nizamuddin had won from Mangalore seat. Tasleem Ahmed had emerged victorious from Laldhang seat in Nainital district. In the 2022 assembly elections, BSP won two seats from Haridwar. Both the candidates were Muslims.
Keeping this equation in mind, BSP fielded candidates
Among these, Sarbat Karim Ansari won from Mangalore Assembly seat and Shehzad won from Laksar Assembly seat. Now, on the basis of the strength of this equation, BSP has fielded former Uttar Pradesh MLA Jamil Ahmed on the Haridwar seat. Considering Jamil Ahmed’s political experience, BSP has high expectations from him. BSP will try to make the contest triangular in Haridwar.
BSP’s focus on Muslim voters
Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar Lok Sabha seat also has a large number of Muslim voters. After the Banbhulpura episode of Haldwani, all the opposition parties are keeping an eye on the Muslim voters here. In such a situation, BSP has adopted the strategy of bringing this vote bank to its fold by fielding Akhtar Ali from the Muslim community. BSP has fielded Muslim candidates from both these seats in 2014 also. Then Haji Mohammad Islam was given ticket from Haridwar and Laiq Ahmed was given ticket from Nainital Udham Singh Nagar seat. Now it remains to be seen what color this equation of BSP shows in the elections.
