How, and Why, the BJP Sometimes Courts Muslim Voters – The Diplomat

The Pulse | Politics | South Asia

Within the ever evolving Indian electoral battlefield, the elusive Muslim vote continues to be a sizzling matter of dialogue. As essential states like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Himachal Pradesh go to polls on the native or regional degree, all political events within the fray try to garner standard help to win the elections. On this electoral logjam, the Muslim vote has usually remained a prized electoral reward through the years.

Whereas the Muslim vote has historically remained with the Indian Nationwide Congress (INC), current election seasons have revealed the Bharatiya Janta Get together (BJP)’s clandestine method to garner the Muslim vote. In truth, opposite to current perceptions, the BJP doesn’t undervalue the Muslim vote and have been constantly eager to amass it. Nevertheless, the distinction lies in its method and its tacit machinations in buying Muslim votes — because the occasion adopts a clandestine, advert hoc method to win the help of Muslims and its electoral technique in doing so differs state-to-state relying on what favors the management of the time. On the query of Muslims, the occasion chooses to regulate the narrative on the bottom to swimsuit its state management and, after all, its electoral prospects. 

For example, in Uttar Pradesh, the place municipal polls are within the offing, the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to garner the votes held by the “Pasmanda Muslims,” who comprise the underprivileged Muslims inside jap Uttar Pradesh. They represent 85 p.c of the Muslim vote share and their help might allow the BJP to win vital variety of seats within the jap a part of the state — a area that’s the dwelling turf of sitting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Adityanath was a 5 time member of Parliament from Gorakhpur, a key metropolis within the area.

This technique is in sync with the BJP’s plan of strengthening its vote share among the many Different Backward Castes (OBCs) and forming an umbrella coalition with their help within the state to facilitate their victory within the upcoming 2024 common elections. On this endeavor, Adityanath, a fervent Hindu nationalist chief, has now led a rapprochement with Muslims within the state by solemnizing 1,300 Muslim weddings. 

Curiously, the BJP has adopted this technique in Delhi as effectively — a state the place the BJP has not received an meeting election in recent times. Therefore, within the upcoming municipality elections, it has determined to hunt Pasmanda Muslim votes to garner electoral victories. Within the jap state of Orissa, too, the BJP has historically eschewed utilizing the “anti Muslim narrative” and the state management has harped on a extra inclusive “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikaas” narrative because the native traditions inside the state preach inclusivity.

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Whereas Muslims are an vital vote financial institution for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dwelling state of Gujarat, the BJP has constantly performed a volte face. Though Muslims represent 9 p.c of Gujarat’s inhabitants and have a large presence in round 25 meeting seats, the BJP has not fielded a single Muslim candidate within the upcoming state meeting elections. The occasion has adopted the identical technique in Gujarat over the previous couple of election cycles wherein it has chosen to keep away from giving tickets to Muslims within the state.

This electoral coverage is in direct consonance with Modi’s picture because the principal node of Hindutva politics within the state. In truth, a communist rightfully said that “Modi sits on high of an anti Muslim consensus (inside the state) and his reputation flows from this.” The BJP has systematically remoted the Muslims after the Ran Janmabhoomi Motion within the Nineties and extra importantly, the Gujarat riots in 2002, and since then BJP’s electoral victories have been in consonance with Modi’s electoral victories. This exemplifies the BJP’s whole boycott of the Muslim citizens inside the state of Gujarat. 

The same technique is being adopted by the BJP in Assam, the place the occasion, beneath the management of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma, is alienating Bengali Muslim settlers by indulging in spurious rhetoric towards the neighborhood. Discord between native Assamese and Bengalis has been a trigger for perpetual social discord within the area. The identical story is true for the election-bound states of Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra, the place the BJP has chosen to characterize the pursuits of Hindus consistent with its conventional Hindutva agenda.

These examples allow us to know that the BJP’s alternating outreach to and sidelining of Muslims purely relies on its electoral technique inside completely different states for various elections. Because the occasion has now firmly changed the INC because the main nationwide occasion of India, it’s making an attempt to be a extra inclusive power to reckon with. It understands that utterly alienating all Muslim voters will not be an excellent scenario. Nevertheless, this dichotomy within the occasion’s remedy of Muslims hurts the very thought of India. The occasion appears oblivious to this truth.