The Samajwadi Party is preparing to adopt an aggressive posture on issues related to Muslims and the party will put the Congress in the dock on this issue.
According to party sources, the Samajwadi leadership now plans to reconsolidate its base among Muslims and repair the damage that had been done to it, following the brief alliance with former BJP leader Kalyan Singh.
The party has already made a beginning in this direction — Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav was the first political leader to criticise the high court verdict on the Babri title suit.
The party will now use the reports by Sachchar Committee report, Ranganath Misra Commission and the Srikrishna commission as tools to hit out at the Congress-led coalition at the Centre.
“We will seek implementation of the recommendations made by these commissions which mainly concern Muslims and will also put the Congress in the dock for its inaction,” said a senior Samajwadi leader.
The Samajwadi Party is gearing up for a comeback in the 2012 Assembly elections and wants to consolidate its base among Muslims before adding on other vote banks.
The party has realised that if it loses out the Muslim vote bank to rivals, it cannot hope to return to power in the state in the next Assembly polls in UP.
It is noteworthy that in the last Lok Sabha elections, Muslims had veered towards the Congress in a big way and this explains the reasonably good performance of the Congress in the polls.
“There have been some issues that misled Muslims and the party suffered because of this in the 2007 assembly elections and then the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. We have identified the trouble areas, rectified them and are now determined to regain lost ground among Muslims. The Muslims, too, have realised that it is the Samajwadi Party alone that cares for them,” the leader added. It is primarily because of this that the Samajwadi Party recently revoked the suspension of Mohammed Azam Khan and is keen to bring him back into the party fold. Mr Khan was always known as the Muslim face of the party and has a substantial following in the community.
The party leadership is also toying with the idea of holding conventions in Muslim-dominated assembly segments where the party’s Muslim leaders will reiterate the secular credentials of the party and remind the role played by the Samajwadi Party in the Ayodhya movement. “We will remind Muslims, particularly the youth, about how Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav crushed communal forces and saved the Babri mosque during his first regime as chief minister,” the leader added.