On May 13, the results of the Uttar Pradesh Urban Local Bodies elections were announced. While Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the maximum number of seats, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) registered a total of 83 wins. The Party led by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi now has five chairmen in UP Nagar Palika Parishad and 75 councillors in municipal corporations.
उत्तर प्रदेश नगर निकाय चुनाव में #AIMIM के 5 चेयरमैन के साथ कुल 83 सभासद/पार्षद कामयाब हुए।
— Shaukat Ali (@imshaukatali) May 14, 2023
तमाम मतदाताओं, मजलिसी कार्यकर्ताओं और ज़िम्मेदारों का तहे दिल से शुक्रिया।#NikayChunav #AIMIMUttarPradesh@asadowaisi @aimim_national
The Party has won Nagar Palika Parishad seats in Sambhal, Sikardra Rao in Hathras, Ghatampur in Kanpur, Kundarki Nagar Panchayat in Moradabad and Thiria Nizawat Khan Nagar Panchayat in Bareilly.
Though all except Meerut candidates for Mayor elections lost deposits, it is notable that in Meerut AIMIM candidate secured the second position in terms of votes. BJP’s Harikan Ahluwalia won the Meerut seat with over 2.3 lakh votes, while AIMIM’s Mohammed Anas got around 1.2 lakh votes. Analysing the results, it appears that Muslim voters’ consolidation worked in favour of AIMIM and went against Samajwadi Party and Congress in several districts.
Speaking to Indian Express, Anas said, “The Samajwadi Party, which had always been labelling the AIMIM as the BJP’s B team, is, in fact, playing the second fiddle to the lotus party. And it was because of the SP that our candidates could not defeat their BJP counterparts at a majority of seats in the Urban Local Body polls in the state.”
A senior SP leader said it should be a wake-up call for the party leadership. He said, “In the previous ULB polls, the AIMIM could wrest only one seat of the chairman in Nagar Palika parishad, and 32 councillors were elected, but this time, the Party has not only improved its performance but also dealt a major blow to the SP. Our leadership should at least wake up from the slumber, or else we are near political obliteration by the next general elections in Uttar Pradesh.”
Muslim consolidation worked in Congress’s favour in Karnataka
In the recent Karnataka elections, Muslim voters consolidated that resulted in a thumping victory for the Congress party. Notably, the election campaign witnessed dangerous levels of polarisation, with the opposition parties raking up the issue of hijab as well as the Congress party promising to ban the Hindu activist group, Bajrang Dal; it is worth analysing how polarisation helped Congress to consolidate Muslim voters and divide Hindu votes to emerge as victorious in the assembly polls.
The analysis of the electoral results hints that Muslims rallied behind the Congress party, possibly to secure their religious interests, and voted en masse for the candidates fielded by the grand old Party. However, by contrast, the Hindus voted largely based on individual loyalties and local issues, with religion being the least of the concerns, as witnessed by the lack of reverse mobilisation to counter Muslim consolidation and the division of its votes among Congress, JDS, and the BJP.
Furthermore, SDPI had clearly stated their intention of campaigning for Congress in the Karnataka elections, thus rallying more hardliner Muslims behind Congress.
