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To prevent a possible shift in Muslim votes to other parties, the Samajwadi Party has started making a conscious effort to reinforce its pro-Muslim image among the minorities in Uttar Pradesh.
Chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had earlier earned to sobriquet of Maulana Mulayam due to his strong anti-BJP stance during the Ayodhya movement, had been countering this image and was making a concerted effort to project himself as a leader having acceptability in all sections of society.
Mr. Yadav himself, since the past few years, had even started making his displeasure clear if anyone referred to him as Maulana Mulayam because he wanted to present himself as broad-based leader. Party leaders were instructed not to lay emphasis on the party's pro-Muslim image and after the UP Assembly elections in 2002, Mr Yadav even pointed out that his party had suffered reverses in major Muslim-dominated constituencies.
However, the recent overtures being made by the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress to woo Muslims and project the Samajwadi Party as being hand-in-glove with communal forces seems to have set alarm bells ringing in the Samajwadi camp.
The party has now reverted to its earlier posture and is busy promoting itself as a pro-minority force in Uttar Pradesh again. After the workers convention last Tuesday, the party distributed a four-page pamphlet that highlights the work done for Muslim welfare by Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav during his political career. This pamphlet has been given to party workers who have been instructed to spread the image in the rural interiors and particularly in Muslim-dominated areas.
According to the pamphlet, in his first stint as UP chief minister, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav had waived off loans up to Rs. 10,000 for weavers while during his second term as chief minister, he granted legal status to the Minorities Commission, appointed 6,131 Urdu teachers and 5,000 Urdu translators, enforced the accidental insurance scheme for Haj yatris and set up the Shanti Suraksha Bal to protect minorities.
In his third stint as UP chief minister, Mr Yadav appointed 13 Muslims as ministers, announced the setting up of an Urdu-Persian university, concessions to weavers in electricity bills and appointed 3,ooo Urdu teachers. Special facilities have also been announced for upgradation of education in madaris.
The pamphlet, interestingly, has been signed by UP minister for family welfare Ahmad Hasan.
Another Muslim minister in the Mulayam ministry, Mohammed Azam Khan, also worked overtime during the convention to promote his leader's Maulana Mulayam image. "Muslayam Singh ne Musalmanon ke liye jo kiya hai, utna to Muslim League ki sarkar bhi nahin kar paati," he said.
The pamphlet, meanwhile, also has a full page devoted to anti-Muslim actions of former chief minister Mayawati campaigned in Gujarat for Mr Narendra Modi who was responsible for the massacre of Muslims after the Godhara incident.
The pamphlet says that Ms Mayawati had felicitated Mr. L.K. Advani - responsible for the Babri Masjid demolition - at her party rally in Lucknow and had ordered a probe into the functioning of madaris saying that these were breeding ground for ISI activists.
The voters are further reminded
how the Mayawati government had withdraw cases against PAC personnel responsible
for the Maliyana- Hashimpura massacres and that there was only one Muslim
district magistrate in her government.
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