Amid reports that Gujarat chief minister and BJP election campaign committee chairman Narendra Modi is planning to contest 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Wednesday dared the saffron leader to test the electoral waters in the state, asserting that the people of the state would teach him a good lesson.
“I cannot welcome Modi in UP but he will come to know that the people of the state never support communal politics'', Mulayam said in an interaction with reporters at Rampur, about 325 km from here.
“The people of UP are intelligent and will not allow any one to divide them on communal lines. Modi will know about this reality if he contests from the state,” the SP leader said adding that Modi would not have any effect in UP.
The SP supremo had previously dismissed Modi as mere “media creation” and described his accomplishments as far from reality. The SP leaders here, however, admitted that Modi and his supporters would do their best to polarise voters along communal lines and split Muslim votes.
“Any division in the muslim votes will certainly harm the electoral prospects of our party,” a senior SP leader here said.
In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the Muslims at many places had sided with the Congress and had helped the party win 21 seats in the state. As a result, the SP's tally had come down from 35 to 20.
“We will definitely like to avoid such a situation,” the leader said.
Although the SP government in UP has been going all out to woo the Muslims in a bid to retain its vote bank ahead of the general election, recurring communal riots, exit of the Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari and the killing of a Muslim DSP have triggered a sharp resentment among the muslims in the state.
In many parts of the state, the community members had also taken to streets against the present dispensation.
The Muslims, who constitute around 20 per cent of the state’s electorate, play a decisive role in around 25 Lok Sabha seats. Mulayam must win their support to stand any chance of scoring over other parties and take a shot at the prime minister’s position.
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