If the ‘Hijab’ controversy was intended to keep Muslim women indoors on polling day and polarise Hindu sentiment in favour of the BJP, the party appears to have been disappointed on both counts in Western Uttar Pradesh. The image of a single Muslim woman hounded by a hostile and rowdy mob of boys, shared widely across the world, has badly boomeranged on the BJP.Not only did Muslim women in Hijab come out in large numbers to vote, Hindu voters seemed either indifferent to the controversy or revolted by it. The controversy is cynical and repulsive, admitted some voters because they have been so used to see women in Hijab while growing up.While the booth-wise polling figures are still not available, initial media reports suggested that in Western UP, BJP is now reconciled to a heavy losses. While the party had bagged as many as 53 seats in 2017 out of the 58 seats for which polling was held on Monday, analysts suggested that in the best case scenario BJP could hope to retain only around 20 seats.
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