Assam Elections: Blasting myth of Muslim Vote Bank

During the electioneering heated exchanges are taking place between BJP leader Himant Biswa Sarma and AIUDF leader Maulana Badruddin Ajmal in Assam. In one such interview Himant Biswa Sarma said that since Muslims are not voting for the BJP, we would not go to them seeking their votes. This statement evoked a lot of criticism against Sarma (see the video). But this statement is likely to open up discussion on place and position of Muslim voters in contemporary Indian politics. The present article is an honest attempt to discuss this issue.

 

Assam and Bengal, two states having maximum Muslim population after Jammu and Kashmir are facing the battle of ballots now. The BJP is ruling in Assam while it is trying to wrest power. Most elections in post independent India were centered round the Muslim vote bank. This Muslim-centric politics was first given a new turn by the Ramjanmabhoomi movement. Still the Indian political leaders did not give up placating the Muslim voters directly or indirectly.

 

 

 

The 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 UP Vidhan Sabha elections were markedly different against this background of Muslim vote bank. The BJP emerged victorious on its own grabbing power with full majority sans any Muslim MP or MLA. These two results came as a rude shock for those who nursed the Muslim-centric politics and the Muslim

leadership which believed that without their votes, the Indian politics would be nowhere.

 

 

Again in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections the BJP improved its tally of 282 to 303 without any Muslim MP from the ruling party. This election results forced the poll analysts and media to rethink. They put forth various theories about the victory of the BJP without appeasing the Muslim vote bank. Some called it “dictatorship of the majority”; some others saw it the beginning of ‘Hindutva Totalitarian’ politics and yet some others described it as “end of the politics of minority-ism and minority interest. But their common inference was that the Muslim vote will not be taken for granted henceforth in the emerging Indian political scenario.

 

 

 

Before this election the BJP was in power as a coalition partner with the PDP in Jammu and Kashmir – the Muslim majority state in India. After the 2016 election the BJP came to power in Assam the number 3 Muslim majority state of India. Though the BJP failed to achieve a majority, it was close to that and therefore, it was a foregone conclusion that the BJP government would complete its five-year term. Himanta Biswa Sarma, a firebrand BJP leader initiated efforts to strengthen the Hindu vote bank in Assam. The Central Government passed the CAA giving citizenship rights to the Hindu Bengali refugees further strengthening the tribal, non-tribal Hindu vote bank. 

 

 

 

The 2021 assembly elections in Assam were seen and declared as ‘War of Civilization” by BJP star campaigner Himanta Biswa Sarma. For the last so many months, he has been busy explaining the core issue of the present election as open conflict between the “Assamese Hindu Civilization '' and the “Miya Culture '' inspired by Badruddin Ajmal. He nullified the 1935 act according to government sanction and monetary grant and closed down all the non-government madarsas. While presenting this act in the state assembly Sarma openly stated that they (BJP) would not want the votes of the Muslims who show the door to their wives by uttering ‘triple talaq’, who spread religious hysteria in the name of ‘jihad’; who did not follow the family planning measures and increase their population by giving birth to 10-12 children. We will make arrangements for higher education for the Muslims and will wait till the Muslim youth coming out of this system in the next 15-20 years and they will case vote in favor of the BJP, Sarma had said then.

 

It was a surprising step to adopt such a stern measure in a state that has considerable Muslim majority. More so, it came as a great psychological shock for the Muslim leadership and the leftist intellectuals who sitting in their ivory towers were day-dreaming about the indispensability of Muslim vote bank.

 

 

When Mayavati was UP Chief Minister, the Muslim leaders published a full page advertisement stating that the “Muslims will not be minority – they will become a majority – Not just a Vote Bank but will be the Rulers of future.” One can best imagine the mindset of such leaders now when the BJP and its new leadership taking the grip on the Hindu votes and negating the concept of the Muslim Vote Bank.

 

Thousands of the Sangh-Jan Sangh activists who dedicated their energy and intellect for the creation of a ‘Hindu Vote Bank’ all through their life; how happy they would be feeling now to see their dream becoming a reality.

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