Katia, a spot of heated political conversations over ginger tea in the evenings, lies in the shadows of the historic Meerut College, alma mater of the former Prime Minister Chaudhury Charan Singh. Satish Prakash, a Physics teacher and Bahujan Samaj Party activist, plunges straight into the party’s strategy for the Assembly elections: the forging of Dalit-Muslim unity that can, in theory, deliver close to 40% of the votes.
As part of this plan, BSP supremo Mayawati has given ticket to 97 Muslims, expecting that the minority community will turn out in winning numbers for her party this time. Even in 2012, when she lost power, Muslims gave her 20 per cent of the community votes.
But most Muslims seem to be rooting for the Samajwadi Party this time. “If Muslims don’t respond to this gamble by the BSP, they’ll be committing a historic mistake,” Mr. Prakash says. “We need Muslims, they need us. Dalits are secure as long as Muslims are there.”
The attack on Dalits in Una in Gujarat last year went on to prove that the Dalit social movement is active, he says.
Divided community
Muslims, by contrast, are divided by caste and hampered by lack of a political leadership and a social agenda. Such leaders as there are, he says, are more caught up with religion.
Murtaza Iqbal, scholar and journalist in Moradabad, concurs with this broadly, but blames Ms. Mayawati, too, for the lack of enthusiasm among Muslims for the BSP — except where that party’s candidate alone can defeat the BJP.
“You can’t just announce 97 Muslim candidates and expect Dalit-Muslim unity,” he says.
“Mayawati ji should have prepared the ground for this over the years. After all, Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule, the Ali brothers and other Muslim leaders of that era had all advocated it.”
In some senses, Dalits and Muslims are not natural allies.
The upper castes have traditionally placed Dalits on the front line during communal riots, and Muslims find it easier to ally with Hindu upper castes, with memories of the time when they were the rulers.
Muslims in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli stress that not only have the Most Backward Community leaders like Dharam Singh Saini (from this area) quit the BSP, taking away their community following, but also that Ms. Mayawati did not visit these districts after the 2013 riots to express solidarity with them.
They add that the BSP organisation, at the district level, has virtually no Muslims, only Dalits. The fact that one of her key lieutenants is Nasimuddin Siddiqui has made little impact.
Assured support
Travelling through western U.P., it is evident that most Dalits who belong to Ms. Mayawati”s community, whether prosperous or not, will vote for the BSP. Konar in Badayun is an Ambedkar village and has tarred roads, a health facility and electricity. Its Jatav voters, predictably, are voting for the BSP.
But in the Nethore constituency, Khadapur is a 20-year-old Dalit village, almost untouched by modern conveniences. What is their chief affliction? Poverty, the Jatavs say.
“All our 1,400 votes will go to her. Behenji is ours,” one of them says.
But are they upset that all six BSP candidates in Bijnor are Muslims? A local RSS leader claimed that angry Jatavs would vote for the BJP. “Yes,” says Surender,” we were unhappy, but we will still vote for the BSP because our goal is to see Mayawati as Chief Minister again.”
