Hindu-Muslim coalition back

The Muslim vote is the BJP's biggest worry. Knives are already out and probing its most critical fault line. Without recovering UP, the BJP's decline threatens to become chronic, and progressive

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The headline least acknowledged in this general election is the return of the Muslim vote. Not Muslim political power, or the rise of a new Muslim leadership. Just a rediscovery of the power of the Muslim vote.

Significantly, the results came just days after the Prime Minister lamented in one of his many TV interviews that many Muslims still believed they could determine who'd rule India. Speaking to Times Now, he said: "I am saying it for the first time to Muslim society, to its well-educated people.

Introspect. Why you are falling behind, what is the reason? Why did you not get any benefits in the Congress era? Introspect (atmamanthan keejiye). The feeling you harbour, that you will determine who to install in power or remove from it, is ruining the future of your children. Muslims are changing all over the world." Doesn't look like the Muslims listened to him? See the results in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and West Bengal, for example. In both, the INDIA bloc's constituents have a larger vote share than the National Democratic Alliance this time. It was never going to be achieved without the Muslims voting for it en bloc. Since all previous data from exit polls and other research tells us Muslims always vote strategically to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), we need to ask why they have been so spectacularly successful this time, especially in Uttar Pradesh. Further, why did this not work in Bihar and Assam, two more states with a sizeable number of Muslim voters and a strong INDIA challenge? Please note in none of the three Lok Sabha elections in the Modi era -2014, 2019, and 2024 nor in the Vidhan Sabha polls of 2017 and 2022, has the BJP fielded even one Muslim candidate for any of UP's 80 Lok Sabha or 403 Vidhan Sabha seats. Yet, it's been securing almighty majorities. So what brought about this dramatic turnaround? This is also the BJP's biggest worry.