With the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections less than six months away, the Samajwadi Party, besides scouting for new allies, is also firming up its social base particularly among the Muslims. Entry of the rabble-rouser Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi in UP electoral politics has added to the challenges before the SP.
The SP has inducted prominent Muslim leaders from the Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress over the past few months to strengthen its Muslim leadership. Even as its veteran leader and Rampur MP, Mohammad Azam Khan remains inactive as he is in jail for the past 19 months; Owaisi's entry into the fray has raised fresh challenges for the SP.
Among the tall Muslim leaders who joined the SP in recent months include former Congress leader Salim Iqbal Sherwani, a five-time MP from Budaun and friend of late Rajiv Gandhi. Sherwani, 68, had joined the SP in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition, but returned to the Congress in 2009 when the SP chose Dharmendra Yadav, a nephew of Mulayam Singh Yadav, over him for a party ticket. Sherwani is already being made to share the stage with party Chief Akhilesh Yadav in many important programmes held by the SP, including the Kisan Mahapanchayat that was held in Aligarh, to send a strong message to the Muslim community.
More recently, the SP has welcomed Sibgatullah Ansari, the eldest of the Ansari brothers and a former BSP MLA from Mohammadabad in Ghazipur district, and his son into the party. The Ansaris, who also include BSP MP Afzal Ansari as well as (now ex-BSP MLA) Mukhtar Ansari, wield considerable clout over Muslims in the east UP districts.
Other Muslim leaders with strong influence in their respective districts who joined the SP include former BSP MP from Sitapur Kaiser Jahan, who had joined the Congress ahead of the 2019 general elections, as well as four-time MLA from Shahabad in Hardoi, Babu Khan, and ex-BSP MP from Shahabad in Hardoi, Daud Ahmed.
SP sources said while not everyone who had come into the party would get a ticket and this had also not been a prerequisite for their entry, the exodus from the BSP and Congress highlighted the erosion of minority leadership in those parties.
“There is a mela at the party headquarters these days with scores of people wanting to join and this is a strong sign that the party is coming to power," said SP spokesperson IP Singh.
"While many Muslim leaders have joined and are working for the party including Salim Sherwani and even Abu Azmi, there is no replacement for Azam Khan," he said.
