By Mumtaz Alam,
The supremo of All India Majlis-e Ittehadul Muslimeen, Asaduddin Owaisi is in the line of fire from those who think his entry in the current Bihar elections will divide secular votes and consequently help Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. For one month – since indications came about his political debut in the state – three-time Hyderabad MP Owaisi has been facing criticism, there may be some point in the criticism, though. And now after his formal announcement on Saturday to fight Bihar polls, he is again facing ire. Both Owaisi and his party MIM are described as “communal” – and so one can say there should be less expectation from them to care about division of secular votes. But what about Mulayam Singh Yadav, who is ‘revered’ as one of the ‘tallest secular’ politicians in the country? Why was there no much hue and cry over his announcement – one week ago – to go solo in Bihar just because the Janata Parivar alliance led by Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad did not give his Samajwadi Party more seats? Has he or any secular political party ever cared about division of secular votes?
There is no denying the fact that the entry of MIM and SP will confuse and divide secular votes and this may even help BJP because there is little confusion in its own vote bloc. But this will not happen for the first time. In fact, it has been happening for the last 30 years since BJP came into existence. Leave the distant past and just take the Lok Sabha Elections 2014 when there was a ‘wave’ for Narendra Modi. Did secular parties form any alliance to take on Modi in Uttar Pradesh despite knowing the fact that a win for him in the state will clear his way to Delhi? Just analyse the votes cast for different parties in the state and you will know how secular votes were divided among Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress and consequently BJP laughed its way to Delhi.
Out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, BJP won 71 seats. The detailed constituency-wise results would show that SP and BSP together polled more than the winning BJP candidates on 36 seats and BSP, SP and Congress together polled more than the winning BJP candidates on 9 other seats. It means that on 45 out of 71 seats that BJP won in Uttar Pradesh, it got fewer votes than three main secular parties together.
Both Mulayam and Owaisi have all democratic and legal rights to fight elections in Bihar and wherever they want. Yet, they cannot stop one from questioning their political decisions.
Owaisi addressed his first massive public gathering in Kishanganj of Bihar on 16th Aug this year giving oil to rumour mills about his plan for Bihar. But next week (on 24th Aug), what he said in an interview to Deccan Chronicle put the speculations to rest. “In UP, we have been working hard and we will contest in the Assembly polls. Maharashtra and Karnataka are the focus of our attention. Definitely, we will take part in the Assembly elections whenever they take place. In Bihar, we are not ready yet. In Delhi we didn’t participate because we were not ready for Assembly elections. But we will contest in the municipal election in Delhi,” Owaisi had said. But just two weeks later (on 12th Sep), he announced to fight Bihar elections.
Some may ask Owaisi as to how he got prepared for Bihar polls in just 15 days. But one can also say that Mulayam’s decision to break away from secular alliance and fight the polls solo might have pushed Owaisi to the electoral arena. The truth? Only Owaisi knows.
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