The bustle in a corner of the fields on the outskirts of Deoband, along the state highway 69, belies the Sunday sleepiness of the city. Inside it, young men and enthusiasts have congregated to listen to firebrand All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi.
Youngster Abuzzar Usmani, who has come to listen to Owaisi, laments about the eroding importance of the Muslim voter. “In the last 10 years, the Muslim voter has become an (electoral) untouchable. We are constantly threatened; we don’t see who our candidate is. We’re used as fuel, as a tool, to fight the BJP. We’re just exploited as a vote bank,” says Usmani.
Ironically, Owaisi had to cancel the rally as his helicopter could not take off.
Umani’s bleak outlook finds resonance among a large section of voters in Deoband. The town has a overwhelmingly Muslim population at 70%, but in Deoband constituency, Muslims account for 40% of the voters. This term, sitting MLA BJP’s Brijesh Singh Rawat is pitted against Kartikeya Rana from the Samajwadi Party and Rajendra Singh of the Bahujan Samaj Party.
AIMIM’s candidate is Umair Madani of Deoband’s famous Madani family. His father is former MP and Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind president Maulana Masood Madani. Explaining Owaisi’s appeal among a section of voters, Madani says that the AIMIM’s speech is simple: “Other issues can wait, right now the need of the hour is to save this country and the Constitution.”
Deoband is one of 163 seats across 27 districts in UP where Muslims hold considerable sway. In 2017, riding on the Modi wave, BJP won 137 of these seats.
This time, however, their vote is tilted highly in favour of the SP-RLD alliance, says local journalist Sameer Choudhary. “The Muslim today has no locus, he has no voice in politics. So, this year, their vote is on account of avoiding further marginalisation,” says Choudhary.
Inside the SP’s office in Deoband, RLD president Naseem Zaidi says that his party’s existence owes a lot to the brotherhood between Muslims and RLD’s main voter base – the Jats. “The 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots divided us, but we are coming back together this time,” Zaidi says.
But won’t the appeal of parties like AIMIM dent their prospects? “The Muslim voter here is smart enough to see that he needs to vote for us to ensure that vote does not go to waste,” he says.
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The last term, the Muslim vote was divided between BSP’s Majid Ali (32%) and SP’s Maviya Ali 923%), leaving Rawat to pick up 43% of the votes. Apart from Muslims, Rajputs, Brahmins, Gurjars and Brahmins make up for the rest of the population.
Despite considerable support, the sense one gets is that the SP will find it hard to shrug the spectre of lawlessness. Inside the BSP’s office, leaders say that Behenji is the only way out.
“The SP’s lawlessness won’t be forgotten, and the BJP’s efforts to marginalise us further is not hidden. They talk of 80:20, but aren’t we all Hindustanis, a part of the 100,” says BSP’s Mohammad Salman.
Deoband, known as the cradle of Islamic theocracy, is also home to the Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband. They remain apolitical and did not want to comment on elections.
Inside the Old Islamia Asgharia Madarsa, a three-century-old seminary considered the first in Deoband, Syed Aqeel Husain says that now the vote is taken on fear. Husain’s family has run the madarsa for centuries.
“Earlier, we spoke about progress and development plans for people. But in the last 25 year, the Muslim vote is taken on fear. We’re not told what a party will do for us, we’re told ‘vote for us, or they will harm you’,” says Husain.
Usmani pins the last word. “We never got the BJP to power, so I don’t see why it is our responsibility to get them out of power.”
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