Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s magic may or may not work wonders for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh but the Congress is confident of reaping a rich harvest due to Modi mania in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
A senior AICC leader told this correspondent on phone from Delhi that the excessive Modi publicity in the Hindi heartland, particularly Uttar Pradesh, was bound to lead to a sharp polarisation of votes on communal lines.
“The higher the Modi pitch, the sharper will be the polarisation of Muslim votes against the BJP and the Congress will be the biggest beneficiary of this because Muslims will go for the Congress which is the only party that can stop the BJP at the national level,” the leader said.
The Congress is also confident that Muslim votes would not go to the SP in the Lok Sabha elections.
“Muslims are intelligent enough to know that the Samajwadi Party lacks political relevance at the national level and if the Congress is strengthened, it can stop the BJP from coming to power. In the Assembly elections, the Muslim may again revert to the Samajwadi Party but Lok Sabha elections are a different game altogether,” the leader said.
The Congress is obviously not perturbed by the fact that the Akhilesh Yadav government in UP has announced a slew of projects for the Muslims in the state. “The SP has been concentrating on pacifying Muslim clerics and has become a party to their squabbles. The state government has done little for the common Muslims. We will be raising these issues in the campaign,” the leader added.
The Congress, as part of its strategy, has asked its state leadership not to give undue importance to the Modi factor and worked at the ground level.
Instead, they will be impressing upon Muslims that a vote for the Samajwadi Party in the Lok Sabha elections will not serve any purpose while a vote for the Congress will help in stalling communal forces.
“We will be concentrating on constituencies that have a dominant Muslim population and will be preparing special booklet in Urdu highlighting the work that the UPA has done for minorities,” the leader added.