DIVISION OF MUSLIM VOTES BENEFITED BJP IN UP ELECTIONS – AN ANALYSIS

Uttar Pradesh: A detailed analysis of the UP Assembly election trends shows that BJP won even in the Muslim concentration areas of western UP due to division in Muslim votes. BJP got benefited due to not forging an alliance between BahujanSamaj Party (BSP),Samajwadi Party and Congress. This was proved true especially in Western Uttar Pradesh where the Muslim voters are in large numbers. According to the news published in The Hindu, in more than two dozen constituencies, the split of Muslim votes benefited BJP. It is also reported that split in Muslim votes in Muslim majority districts Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Saharanpur, Bareilly, Bijnor, Sardhana in Meerut, Khalilabad in Gorakhpur, Tanda in Ambedkar Nagar, Gainsari and Shrawasti seats in Shrawasti district and Moradabad benefited BJP. In many districts, votes polled in favour of SP-Congress alliance and BSP were more than the winning candidates of BJP. To cite a few examples, in Meerapur, BJP won the seat by a mere 193 votes. Its candidate, Avtar Singh Bhadana polled 69,035 votes whereas SP’s candidate Liyakat Ali got 68,842 votes and Nawazish Alam Khan of BSP got 39, 689 votes. In Sardhana, Sangeet Som of BJP won with 97,921 votes whereas Mr. Atul Pradhan of SP polled 76, 296 votes and Mr. Imran Quraishi of BSP got 57, 239 votes. In Deoband, where there are over 1.25 lakh Muslim voters, BJP’s Brijesh Pathak won the seat. He polled 1,02,244 votes whereas Mr. Majid Ali of BSP got 72,844 votes and Maviya Ali of SP got 55, 385 votes. In Kanth Assembly, Muslim votes got divided between the Muslim candidates of the SP, BSP, AIMIM and the Peace Party.