Pawar's tie-up with SP aims at wooing Muslims in state
S. Balakrishnan
The Sunday Times of India
June 20, 1999
Title: Pawar's tie-up with SP aims at wooing Muslims in state
Author: S. Balakrishnan
Publication: The Sunday Times of India
Date: June 20, 1999
The formation of the alliance between the Nationalist Congress Party
and the Samajwadi Party (SP) is being perceived in political circles
as a shrewd move by NCP president Sharad Pawar to access Muslim voters
in Maharashtra.
During the last elections, Mr Pawar had formed a formidable
combination of the Congress, the SP and the Republican Party of India
and this had delivered a severe blow to the ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya
Janata Party alliance.
He is now seeking to do a repeat performance by having a tie-up
between his newly-formed NCP, the SP and the RPI. Having won over the
SP, the highly resourceful Maratha leader is now busy wooing rival RPI
leaders Ramdas Athavale and Prakash Ambedkar, who can be useful in
mobilising Dalit voters.
Muslims and Dalits do not represent the political constituencies of
the saffron combine. Hence, both the NCP and the Congress are
competing with each other to win over these sizeable segments of the
electorate which can decisively make or mar the prospects of
candidates in at least two dozen of the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies.
At least for the present, it appears that the NCP is ahead of the
Congress in this competition. The Congress is still to take concrete
steps to win over Muslim and Dalit voters.
Spokesperson for the Congress W.R. Sherekar claimed that Muslims would
not support the NCP-SP combine since it was headed by persons like Mr
Pawar and Sudhakarrao Naik "who had failed to tackle the communal
riots of 1992-93".
However, NCP legislator Digvijay Khanvilkar pointed out that the
Srikrishna commission, which had probed the riots, did not find Mr
Pawar guilty at all. The commission had held the Shiv Sena
principally responsible for the riots and had only rapped Mr Naik on
the knuckles, he noted. In fact, he added, Mr Pawar had provided the
healing touch after the riots and substantially stabilised the
situation in Mumbai.
Mr Sherekar said the Muslims were once again flocking to the Congress
since that party had not given any important post to P.V. Narasimha
Rao during whose prime ministership the Babri masjid had been
demolished in Ayodhya.
An office-bearer of the SP said much water had flowed down the Ganges
after the Babri demolition and the communal riots. "The primary task
which the Muslim masses have set is the defeat of the Sena-BJP
alliance. There is a widespread perception among them that only the
NCP-SP combination is formidable enough to trounce the Sena-BJP
tie-up. Hence, they are certain to back Mr Pawar and Mr Mulayam
Singh," he noted.
Political observers said that the section of the Congress which had
always been vehemently opposed to the saffron government in
Maharashtra had almost entirely joined the NCP. As leader of the
opposition in the state legislative council, Chhagan Bhujbal had been
in the forefront of the ferocious onslaught on the state government on
1'affaire Ramesh Kini, the police firing on a Dalit mob at Ramabai
Colony and other issues. Mr Bhujbal is now a prominent leader of the
NCP. "The consistently anti-Sena track record of Mr Bhujbal and
others of his ilk during the past four years has made the NCP more
appealing to Muslims and Dalits," said Jitendra Avhad, a Pawar
loyalist from Thane.
President of the National Minorities Party Akhtar Rizvi, M.P., claimed
recently that the Muslims would not back the SP since the party had
sabotaged the installation of a secular government at the Centre under
the leadership of Sonia Gandhi. But the SP pooh-poohs this prognosis
by pointing out that over the past few years, it has been the only
party that has made deep inroads into the Muslim community and won its
confidence.
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