Stating that the Samajwadi Party will foil the Bharatiya Janata Party’s political game plan in Uttar Pradesh in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the party supremo Mulayam Singh on Monday declared that if the BJP lost in the State, Narendra Modi would be unable to become the Prime Minister. Mr. Singh admitted that the BJP had posed a challenge, but he was quick to add that the SP would prevent it from achieving its objective.
Mr. Singh was at the SP headquarters on Monday where two lesser-known Muslim organisations — the Sunni UIema Council and the All India Muslim Jogi Samaj — pledged their support in the Lok Sabha polls. Addressing the gathering, the SP president said the BJP and the Congress would fail to get a majority in the elections. He cautioned the Muslims against the BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party who, he said, had “strong ties,” as well as the Congress, whose role has “been suspicious.”
Reiterating his commitment and that of the SP towards the Muslim cause, Mr. Singh said the party had supported Muslims for the sake of justice, and the minority community had always supported the SP. Even as he recounted the measures taken by the SP government for the welfare of Muslims, Mr. Singh lauded them for playing a significant role in freedom struggle.
In fact, support of the Sunni Ulema Council and All India Muslim Jogi Samaj, was purportedly drummed up in the wake of the Rashtriya Ulema Council (RUC) president, Maulana Aamir Rashadi Madni’s decision to contest against Mr. Singh in Azamgarh. The SP spin doctors were quick to claim that a split had occurred in the Rashtriya Ulema Council. The purported split was denied by a RUC spokesman.
Meanwhile, amid reports of Quami Ekta Dal (QED) having approached the SP for putting up a common candidate against the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi in Varanasi, State PWD Minister, Shivpal Singh Yadav, on Monday re-affirmed his party’s stand of contesting from Varanasi.
