New Delhi: The Kundarki assembly bypoll results threw a surprise as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won by over 1.4 lakh votes in the Muslim-majority constituency.
BJP’s Ramveer Singh got 1,70,371 votes, which is 76.71 percent of the total votes cast, whereas his opponent Mohammad Rizwan of the Samajwadi Party (SP) got only 25,880 votes.
Singh was the sole Hindu candidate in Kundarki, where there were 11 Muslim contenders including INDIA bloc’s pick Rizwan. The Muslim population in this SP stronghold is above 60 percent.
On Sunday, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that in Kundarki, the police and the administration removed almost all the booth agents of his party as well as prevented many supporters from exercising their voting rights.
“If voters were prevented from voting, then who cast the votes? If Samajwadi Party voters didn’t reach those booths and our candidate didn’t get support, then who voted there? This is a serious issue.” he said at a press conference in Lucknow.
The BJP had last won Kundarki in 1993, when Chandra Vijay Singh emerged victorious in the constituency.
ThePrint analyses the reasons behind this BJP’s victory in a Samajwadi party’s stronghold.
Secular campaign
According to the BJP functionaries in Uttar Pradesh, Ramveer’s different style of campaign in minority areas played an important role in his victory.
“Ramveer has put Muslim topis (Muslim prayer caps) during his campaign in minority-dominated areas in Kundarki. He was not only visiting Muslim households but also attended their ‘walima’ (wedding banquets),” a senior UP BJP leader from Moradabad told ThePrint, adding that the party candidate became a ‘secular bhai’ for the past few weeks.
“With the help of the BJP minority wing, he created a team of over two dozen Muslim workers who not only campaigned for him but also fixed his meetings with local maulanas and influential Muslims.”
Shaikhzada factor
According to a senior Uttar Pradesh BJP functionary who campaigned in the bypolls, there are almost 80,000 Shaikhzadas in Kundarki.
“They are considered to be Muslim Rajputs and Ramveer Singh is also a Rajput. During campaigning, we pitched that we are one, as we all are rajputs. That our ancestors are one. This worked in our favour,” the BJP functionary elaborated.
Apart from this, he said, the local unit kept two Muslim agents at every booth.
“They brought Muslims voters from their home to vote for the BJP. Somehow they convinced a section of the Muslims. 57.7 percent votes were polled in Kundarki, which means a major chunk of the Muslims voted for BJP,” the BJP functionary added.
Sidelining of Barq family
The bypoll in Kundarki was necessitated as SP leader Zia Ur Rehman Barq, a grandson of the later SP veteran Shafiqur Rahman, was elected to the Lok Sabha from Sambhal this year.
The Barq family wanted a ticket for another of their kin but the SP preferred former MLA Mohammad Rizwan, 71, for this seat
Rizwan first won from Kundarki in 2002 but lost to the Bahujan Samaj Party’s Akbar Husain in 2007. But, he went to secure consecutive wins in 2012 and 2017
The Barq family, according to SP insiders, did not support Rizwan as their request was not heard by the party leadership.
“Barq Sahab family has a good reputation among the Muslims in this region. Kundarki is in Moradabad district, but falls in the Sambhal Lok Sabha constituency where Zia Ur Rehman is the sitting MP. So, why would they want any other leader to capture their space? Though the MP came for some public meetings that was not enough,” a local SP leader told ThePrint.
Ilma Afroz case
Another reason touted for this stunning results is the BJP raking up the ill-treatment meted out to Ilma Afroz, Superintendent of Police (SP) of Himachal Pradesh’s Baddi, in the Congress-ruled hill state.
The Indian Police Service (IPS) officer is currently at her native place in Kundarki, which falls in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad district, after she was sent on long leave allegedly after she took on Congress MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary.
The BJP’s local unit highlighted Ilma’s case and alleged that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi were not coming to the rescue of the Muslim officer.
Even Uttar Pradesh cooperative minister JPS Rathore, party’s in-charge of Kundarki, had harped on “injustice” faced by Ilma when he campaigned in the constituency.
“’We pitched the issue of Ilma among Muslim women. By showing newspaper cuttings, we told them how a daughter of Kundarki is suffering. He (Akhilesh) can raise this issue to his friend Rahul, but he would not do so because they use Muslims only as a votebank. Our appeals worked somehow…,” a BJP’s women wing leader from Moradabad said.
Administration’s ‘management’
If SP spokesperson Sunil Singh Sajan’s statement is to be believed, the BJP managed to wrest Kundarki on the basis of “gun power”.
”The videos of the Muslims being stopped from voting went viral on social media on the day of voting. They have used gun power to threaten voters,” Sajan said.
He further alleged that several Muslim families were threatened with false cases against them if their votes did not go to the BJP.
“Otherwise, why would any Muslim vote for the BJP? Why did this not happen in Sishamau where the Muslims are above 40 percent of the total population (and Naseem Solanki retained the seat for the SP). This is a wrong prediction that the Muslims voted in the BJP’s favour. Some of them were forced to do that in Kundarki and on some booths, bogus voting also happened. The way they managed the Rampur bypolls a few years ago, similarly it now happened in Kundarki,” he alleged.
The SP, Sajan said, would bounce back at Kundarki in 2027 just like in the case of Rampur in the 2024 general elections.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
