Express News Service
BHOPAL: As many as 92 newly elected Muslim corporators and municipal councillors in Madhya Pradesh are affiliated to the BJP. They have a dual role to play: As they focus on civic woes in their municipal wards, they will also work to remove the impression about their party being anti-minority.
In the election for 6,671 posts of municipal corporators/councillors in the urban local body polls in the state, the ruling party had fielded 380 Muslim candidates.
A total of 92 of them won the polls (two unopposed) with a strike rate of about 25 per cent.
Compared to the 2014 urban local body polls, both the main parties increased the number of tickets to Muslim candidates.
The opposition Congress fielded 450 candidates this time as compared to 400 in the previous polls.
The BJP’s count of 380 Muslim candidates was nearly eight times the number eight years back.
As per the 2011 census, Muslims account for 6.57 per cent of the population of the state.
The BJP strike rate was quite low when compared to the Congress’ 77 per cent (344 out of 450). However, the BJP may replicate its strategy in assembly seats with a sizable minority population (like Bhopal North seat which it has won only once in 45 years), particularly in communally sensitive districts, like Khandwa, Burhanpur, Ujjain and Indore.
Out of the 90 newly elected Muslim corporators (two had won unopposed), 31 won in communally sensitive districts of west MP’s Ujjain and Indore division, including a maximum of seven in Dewas, six in Khandwa, five in Shajapur, and four each in Ratlam and Mandsaur.
BJP poll planners fielded Muslim candidates in the minority community wards to first split the votes and then win through the loyal Hindu votes in those wards.
“It was a well thought out move in the wake of the Nupur Sharma controversy,” state BJP’s minority cell head Rafat Warsi said.
Not only has the strategy seemed to have worked in at least 25 wards, which were long considered Congress strongholds, but the Muslim candidates of the party have also finished a close second in 209 other wards.
For instance, in Ward No. 12 (Maharana Pratap Ward) of Khandwa, Mohd Sadiq Bathiya defeated Ahmad Patel, the three-times sitting corporator and the leader of opposition in the outgoing Khandwa Municipal Corporation, by 104 votes.
Bathiya quit Congress to join BJP in 2020 after Jyotiraditya Scindia’s entry into the party. Out of the total polled votes, 300-400 were Hindu votes, a significant chunk of which possibly went to the BJP candidate.
BHOPAL: As many as 92 newly elected Muslim corporators and municipal councillors in Madhya Pradesh are affiliated to the BJP. They have a dual role to play: As they focus on civic woes in their municipal wards, they will also work to remove the impression about their party being anti-minority.
In the election for 6,671 posts of municipal corporators/councillors in the urban local body polls in the state, the ruling party had fielded 380 Muslim candidates.
A total of 92 of them won the polls (two unopposed) with a strike rate of about 25 per cent.
Compared to the 2014 urban local body polls, both the main parties increased the number of tickets to Muslim candidates.
The opposition Congress fielded 450 candidates this time as compared to 400 in the previous polls.
The BJP’s count of 380 Muslim candidates was nearly eight times the number eight years back.
As per the 2011 census, Muslims account for 6.57 per cent of the population of the state.
The BJP strike rate was quite low when compared to the Congress’ 77 per cent (344 out of 450). However, the BJP may replicate its strategy in assembly seats with a sizable minority population (like Bhopal North seat which it has won only once in 45 years), particularly in communally sensitive districts, like Khandwa, Burhanpur, Ujjain and Indore.
Out of the 90 newly elected Muslim corporators (two had won unopposed), 31 won in communally sensitive districts of west MP’s Ujjain and Indore division, including a maximum of seven in Dewas, six in Khandwa, five in Shajapur, and four each in Ratlam and Mandsaur.
BJP poll planners fielded Muslim candidates in the minority community wards to first split the votes and then win through the loyal Hindu votes in those wards.
“It was a well thought out move in the wake of the Nupur Sharma controversy,” state BJP’s minority cell head Rafat Warsi said.
Not only has the strategy seemed to have worked in at least 25 wards, which were long considered Congress strongholds, but the Muslim candidates of the party have also finished a close second in 209 other wards.
For instance, in Ward No. 12 (Maharana Pratap Ward) of Khandwa, Mohd Sadiq Bathiya defeated Ahmad Patel, the three-times sitting corporator and the leader of opposition in the outgoing Khandwa Municipal Corporation, by 104 votes.
Bathiya quit Congress to join BJP in 2020 after Jyotiraditya Scindia’s entry into the party. Out of the total polled votes, 300-400 were Hindu votes, a significant chunk of which possibly went to the BJP candidate.
