Despite general perception that Muslims were voting against it, BJP has succeeded in getting at least eight per cent Muslim votes in a bipolar and highly polarised Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh

Despite general perception that Muslims were voting against it, the BJP has succeeded in getting at least eight per cent Muslim votes in a bipolar and highly polarised Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh.

The CSDS-Lokniti has come out with its survey that of the 20 per cent Muslim votes, the Samajwadi Party secured around 79 per cent and at least eight per cent votes went to the BJP, which is an increase of one per cent over the 2017 Assembly elections.

The survey indicates that the community is willing to support the BJP, but indicated that there needed to be "two-way traffic" and the BJP's posturing should translate into action.

The main reason for this shift in the Muslim votes towards the BJP is that Muslims have benefited as much as Hindus from the various welfare schemes during the last five years in Uttar Pradesh.

The study suggests that Muslims should explore the possibilities of opening up to the BJP. Supporting the non-BJP governments out of fear of the BJP bogey has not helped them as their socio-economic condition has gone from bad to worse over the decades.

"The community's condition is worse than Dalits," the Sachar committee report had noted.

According to a survey of 'Religion, Caste, Nationalism and Attitudes in India' by the US-based Pew Research Centre, around 20 per cent of Muslims voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

"One out of five Muslims voted for BJP," the survey noted.

A CSDS-Lokniti survey of 2019 had indicated 14 per cent support for the BJP. When CSDS posed a question to the community before the 2019 Lok Sabha election on whether they supported another term to the Modi government, 26 per cent said "yes", whereas 31 per cent of the Hindu respondents felt that the Modi government should not get another term./business-standard