Madhya Pradesh assembly elections: Despite secular makeover, will Muslims vote for Shivraj Singh Chouhan?

BHOPAL: To build a secular image chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan laid the foundation stone of a Haj House in April, wore the skull cap on Id-ul-Fitr, got Muslim couples married under the Mukhya Mantri Kanyadaan Yojana, alloted land for the construction of a Urdu University, added the slogan of Sarv Dharm Sabhav in his election campaign and Muslims were seen showering flowers on him from the terraces of mosques during the BJP's Jan Ashirwad Yatra pre-election road-show.

Despite this secular makeover, will Muslims vote for Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh on November 25 like they did for Narendra Modi in Gujarat in the December 2012 assembly elections?

During an interview to a private channel in February this year, Jamait-Ulema-ed-Hind general secretary Maulana Mehmood Madani had admitted that Muslims in Gujarat voted for Narendra Modi because economically they are far better than the community residing in other "secular" states.

Six weeks before the polls in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP here claims that minority Muslims will not only vote for the party but "ensure that the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government returns for a third term with as many as 170 of the total 230 seats in the assembly." The Congress, however, maintained Muslims will never vote for the saffron brigade.

BJP national vice-president Prabhat Jha argued for Chouhan: "First, the BJP treats Muslims as citizens and not voters. But of course as citizens they have the right to vote. We do not regard them as secondary to Hindus. The chief minister initiated the construction of a permanent Haj House and allotted land for an Urdu University because they were necessary. This government has never discriminated between citizens on the basis of caste, religion and background. So why should Muslims have any negative feeling about Chouhan and his government?"

In August, the Chouhan government passed an order to introduce lessons from the Bhagawat Gita as part of school curriculum even in madrassas. When the minority community reacted strongly to the government directive, Chouhan promptly withdrew it in less than 24 hours.

Prabhat Jha reasoned that all citizens have benefitted equally from the Chouhan government's welfare policies.

"If Hindu girls were married under the chief minister's Kanyadaan Yojana, Muslims girls' nikaah were also organized by the state. If a Hindu farmer got a bonus of Rs 150 per quintal of wheat on the minimum support price, so did the Muslim agrarian. When a Hindu senior citizen has been sent for pilgrimage under the Teerth Darshan Yojana to Rameshwar, his Muslim neighbour has gone to Ajmer Sharif under the same scheme. Madhya Pradesh is the only state in the country that has entitled 11 Muslim intellectuals including the chairman Haj Committee and chairman Urdu Academy to get red beacon vehicles," he said.

The state has 22 seats with sizable Muslim population out of which 8 are minority predominated. These are Bhopal central constituency with 46 per cent Muslim voters, Bhopal North with 48 per cent, Narela (Bhopal) with 42 per cent. Other Muslim dominated seats are spread over Jabalpur, Ratlam, Ujjain, Burhanpur and Indore. More than 60 per cent of these seats are represented by the BJP and Bhopal North is the only seat that elected Arif Aqueel of the Congress, the sole MLA from the community.

In Gujarat, the small town of Salaya in Jamnagar district of Gujarat with a 90 per cent Muslim population voted for the Narendra Modi as chief minister. Will Bhopal North vote for Shivraj Singh Chouhan in November? "We cannot compare the electoral voting pattern of Madhya Pradesh to Gujarat because the nature of politics in the two states is very different. There are issues and factors here which may not apply in Gujarat," Jha justified. "But the viewpoint of Muslims about the BJP has undergone a massive transformation in Madhya Pradesh because the chief minister's welfare policies did not discriminate between man and man."

The state Congress, however, differed. State Congress spokesman JP Dhanopia said: "The minority in Madhya Pradesh know that the only secular party that can give them necessary protection, security and a peaceful existence is the Congress." State Congress leader Manak Agarwal added: "Skull cap or Haj House, Muslims can never forget the series of riots across the state after the BJP came to power. The community will never vote for the BJP."