The two Muslim candidates of the BJP are facing a tough challenge as various “controversial remarks” came during the peak of the campaign. Seemanchal goes to the polls in the fifth phase on November 5.
Saba Zafar of the BJP is pitted against Nawazuddin Alam, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) candidate, and Abdul Jalil Mastan of the Congress in the Amour constituency in Purnea.
Mr. Zafar is campaigning hard to retain the seat which he had won in the 2010 election. He said he was sailing smooth until “controversial remarks” came in from his own flock of leaders.
“Muslims are not against the BJP as they say, but some people pass some controversial remarks which eventually cut into our votes … such remarks generate discontent among our community,” he told The Hindu on the phone while campaigning in a remote village. Mr. Zafar appears to be a popular candidate in the Muslim-dominated constituency, but this time, the “no-holds barred” statements from RSS and BJP leaders have made his contest tough.
He said that people from his own community had no grudge against Prime Minister Narendra Modi as such; rather “they praise him for his development orientation”.
“Modi’s stature is not a problem but the unwarranted statements are,” he said. “Whatever vote I would get this time, it will be because of me and not because of the BJP.”
The situation of the BJP candidate in Kochadhaman constituency in Kishanganj is a bit similar. The BJP has fielded Abdur Rehman against JD(U) candidate Muhammad Mujahid Alam and Akhtarul Imam of the AIMIM.
The JD(U) and the AIMIM candidates are Surjapuri Muslims, while Mr. Rehman is a Shershahbadi Muslim.
The Surjapuri Muslims have 1.25 lakh votes, whereas the Shershahbadi sect has 40,000. The constituency has nearly 10,000 Hindu votes.
“The BJP hopes for a division between the JD(U) and the AIMIM and consolidation of Shershahbadi and Hindu votes in its favour,” said Abdul Razzak of Kolha village. But Muslims appeared not happy with Mr. Rehman for contesting on the BJP ticket, “a party whose leaders are giving not only controversial but also threatening statements every day against us”, said Mohammed Attaurahman at Salki chowk.
“We may have considered him for our vote had he contested on some other party’s ticket,” he said.
Both the BJP candidates are pushing against all odds to come out victorious as “Muslim faces of the BJP in Bihar”.
