One word that is resonating the most in the rallies and speeches of the Lok Sabha elections is Muslim and minority. The statement given by PM Narendra Modi on minorities in Rajasthan on April 21 changed the direction of the election campaign. After this, a series of allegations and counter-allegations started. Congress accused the PM of spreading confusion about his manifesto. However, later the PM said that he does not do Hindu Muslim politics. In the elections, everyone's eyes are on the Muslim community that what will be its election pattern this time? Will Muslims vote on a united secular pattern? It is believed that out of 543 seats, 86 seats are under the influence of minorities. There are more such seats in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra.
Support to TMC in Bengal
Lokniti Program for Comparative Democracy (CSDS) data shows that in West Bengal, which has a good population of minorities, 75 percent of Muslims voted for the Trinamool Congress in the 2021 assembly elections. In Uttar Pradesh, 79 percent of Muslims voted for the Grand Alliance in the 2022 assembly elections and 77 percent of Muslims voted for the Grand Alliance in the Bihar assembly elections. In such a situation, many experts believe that in view of the assembly elections to be held after 2019, there will hardly be any change in this voting pattern of 14 percent of the country's population. That is, the community will retain this attitude of its voting. However, the representation of the Muslim community in ticket distribution has decreased compared to earlier. This time only 78 Muslim candidates are in the fray in the Lok Sabha elections, whereas last time this number was 115. Out of these, 26 won and reached the Lok Sabha.
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Lok Sabha Elections: Why does Congress expect good results from the North as well as the South?
BSP gave the most tickets
If we look at the ticket distribution to the Muslim community, BSP has fielded the maximum number of 35 candidates. After this, Congress is at second place with 19 candidates. TMC comes at third place. BSP may have given tickets to 35 Muslim candidates, but this strategy has cut secular votes in the past as well. In the 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, BSP had given tickets to 99 Muslim candidates. This divided the Muslim vote. At that time, BJP had won 313 out of 403 assembly seats. Samajwadi Party, which contested the elections on the Yadav-Muslim equation in UP politics, has also given tickets to only 4 Muslims this time to balance the OBC and Dalit equation. Bengal politics analyst Jayant Ghoshal says that at present 30 percent of the Muslim vote bank is scattered among parties like Congress, CPM and Muslim Secular Front.
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BJP's eyes on Pasmanda voters
Political parties may shy away from giving tickets to Muslim candidates, but everyone needs Muslim votes. BJP is targeting 15 percent of the community's votes and for this the party has been focusing on Pasmanda Muslims for some time now. 57 percent of the Muslim community are Pasmanda Muslims. The Modi Mitra Yojana being run aggressively by the BJP has also been a part of this series. Under this, the party's minority front has constantly made a strategy to communicate with the Muslim community. However, many experts also say that after 2014, Hindu voters have united due to Hindutva policies and this trend continued and in 2019 more than 40 percent of Hindu voters voted for BJP. Muslim votes were also divided at many places.