34 Muslims elected to UP assembly, 10 more than last time

Thirty-four Muslim candidates have won in the recent Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, 10 more than in the last state elections.

They were fielded by the Samajwadi Party and its alliance partners.

The Bahujan Samaj Party, the Congress and the All-India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen had also fielded a number of Muslim candidates but they could not win.

The Apna Dal-Sonelal, an ally of the BJP, had fielded Haidar Ali Khan from Swar seat in Rampur but he lost to the SP's Abdullah Azam by over 61,000 votes.

Political analyst Rajendra Dwivedi said Muslim candidates can't win by just banking upon their community's support.

The candidates of parties having strong vote bank win the polls, he said.

"The Muslim candidate cannot win only by banking upon the support of Muslim votes. They need the support of the party's base vote bank. For example, the core vote bank of the Samajwadi Party is Yadavs," he said, adding that the Muslim-Yadav combination ensures their win.

"The Muslims felt that it is only the Samajwadi Party, which can defeat the BJP," he said.

He added that the Congress does not have its own vote bank and there were no chances of its candidate winning the elections.

When asked about the dismal performance of the AIMIM, Hisam Siddiqui of an Urdu newspaper said, "The Muslims of UP know very well that one cannot win the elections by only banking on the Muslim votes. So, they are not convinced by Asaduddin Owaisi and completely ignore the AIMIM candidates."

He said Muslims attend Owaisi's rally in large numbers but do not vote for him.

As a result, the vote share of the AIMIM in this UP elections stood at 0.49 per cent, he said.

According to the Election Commission website, the Muslim candidates who got elected to the state assembly on the SP ticket are Mohammed Azam Khan (Rampur), Mahboob Ali (Amroha), Ataur Rehman (Baehri), Umar Ali Khan (Behat), Jahid (Bhadohi), Shahjil Islam (Bhojipura), Mohammad Faheem (Bilari), Naseer Ahmed (Chamraua), Nafees Ahmed (Gopalpur), Mohammad Tahir Khan (Issauli) and Mohammad Hasan (Kanpur Cantonment).

Kamal Akhtar (Kanth), Shahid Manzoor (Kithaur), Jia-ur-Rehman (Kundarki), Arman Khan (Lucknow West), Maria (Matera), Rafiq Ansari (Meerut), Suhaib (Mohammadbad) and Mohammad Nasir (Moradabad rural) also won on the SP ticket.

The other Muslim MLAs of the SP are Tasleem Ahmed (Najijabad), Alam Badi (Nizamabad), Nadira Sultan (Patiyali), Fareed Mahfooz Kidwai (Ramnagar), Iqbal Mehmood (Sambhal), Jiauddin Rizvi (Sikandarpur), Haji Irfan Solanki (Sisamau), Nawabjan (Thaurdwara), Syeda Khatoon (Domariyaganj) and Ashu Malik (Saharanpur).

Abbas Anasri, son of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, won from Mau on the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party ticket.

Ghulam Mohammad and Ashraf Ali won on the RLD ticket from Siwalkhas and Thanabhawan, respectively.