LUCKNOW: The Bahujan Samaj Party in its quest for the crucial Muslim vote has launched an aggressive campaign to woo the minority community, but there were no indications of the party’s overtures making any impact so far. The response of the minority community to the election rallies of the party have at best been lukewarm. The BSP however has been able to further consolidate its support base among the Dalits. According to reports, the party meetings at Meerut did not evoke anencour aging response. Similarly the Tuesday’s election rally at the Begum Hazrat Mahal Park in the State capital was not up to the expectations of the party leader. The rally though fairly attended, failed to have the desired impact on the members of the minority community. All the speakers at the rally focused their speeches on the problem of Dalits and Muslims.
The party leaders however claimed that the turnout of Muslims and their response at the rally was good. But, according to insiders, BSP chief Kanshi Ram ex pressed his dissatisfaction over the party’s failure to mobilize a large crowd of Muslims. The audience response indicated that the number of Muslims was not very high and it was dominated mainly by Dalits. Though the Shahi Imam Maulana Abdullah Bukhari’s call to overthrow the United Front Government was applauded, there was hardly any response when he said the Babri Masjid will be re built at the same site. Among those spoke at the rally, apart from Mr. Kanshi Ram and the Shahi Imam, was Naib Imam a Muslim leader who defected from Janata Dal and two other religious leaders. All of them delivered fiery speeches, without eliciting a matching response from the people.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 25, 1996
