Political choice for Muslims is diverse

A section of Muslim voters is getting mobilised in favour of BJP too

- BADRI NARAYAN

The parliamentary election-2024 is going to be held soon. Like other elections, various speculation are doing the rounds as to who Muslims are going to vote for. There is a common perception that Muslims in India, especially in North India, may vote for the non-BJP political parties and alliances. Our media, academics and political analysts usually believe that Muslims always vote against the Bhartiya Janata Party or the BJP in elections. There is argument that since Bhartiya Janata party (BJP) is popularly known as Hindutva political party, Muslim get polarised against it and usually go in the favour of political party who keeps potential to defeat BJP in elections.

However, during my field research in the villages of various parts of North Indian regions, I observed that the political choice of Muslim is not singular but diverse.

It is true that non-BJP political parties such as Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, Rastriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar and Congress in the states like Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh attracted the major percent of votes of the Muslim communities in previous elections. But slowly BJP is emerging as another political alternative for a section of the people of Muslim communities especially poor and marginal who are called Pasmanda(Backward) Muslim. We observed that there is no homogeneity in voting choice of Muslims either in favour or against BJP in various parts of Northern India.