After Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, BJP seems to be successful in making ‘lotus’ bloom in Muslim dominated Kundarki seat. BJP candidate Thakur Ramveer Singh’s move to campaign in the ‘Bhaijaan’ model in Kundarki Assembly seat, which has 65 percent Muslim population, has been a hit and the SP looked defeated. Ramveer Singh is seen winning the Kundarki seat with a huge majority. . In this way, BJP has blossomed on Kundarki seat after 31 years.
Due to the presence of around 65 percent Muslim voters in Kundarki, SP was assuming its victory here as certain. Due to the political equation of Muslim votes, SP has been successful in making its MLA from Kundarki seat four times. In its political history, BJP had managed to win Kundarki seat only in the 1993 by-election. Due to the Muslim equation, it seemed to be the most difficult seat for BJP, but Thakur Ramveer Singh’s style of campaigning in ‘Bhaijaan Model’ was liked by the Muslims and all the hopes of SP were dashed.
Who is in the electoral fray in Kundarki?
BJP had fielded Ramveer Singh and SP had fielded former MLA Haji Rizwan on Kundarki seat. Rafatullah from BSP and Mohd. Warish from AIMIM were contesting the elections. In this way, among the 12 candidates on Kundarki seat, all except Thakur Ramveer Singh are Muslims. Since it is a Muslim dominated seat, winning Kundarki was like a tough task for BJP. The situation was similar for BJP in Rampur also, where 55 percent of the voters were Muslims. BJP fielded Akash Saxena in Rampur by-election and he was successful in getting a large vote bank of Muslims. In the same style, BJP has woven the fabric of victory in Kundarki seat also, for which BJP candidate Ramveer Singh is seen in Muslim colors.
Used to stop speeches during Azaan
BJP candidate Ramveer Singh Sir decided to campaign in the ‘Bhaijaan’ look wearing a netted round Namaji cap and a Saudi-style sheet around his neck. In Ramveer Muslim areas, BJP is not limited to just campaigning but he used to start his speech by reciting verses from Quran. As soon as Ramveer Singh, who is composed in Islamic style, hears the Azaan, he stops giving his speech and stands silently. After the Azaan is over, he starts his speech again.
Kunwar Basit Ali behind BJP’s victory
Even though Ramveer Singh may have succeeded in becoming MLA in Kundarki, the real story of BJP’s victory was written by Minority Front State President Kunwar Basit Ali. From the very beginning he had kept a special focus on Muslim areas. Basit Ali was taking the promise of voting for BJP by making the Muslims swear on Allah in Kundarki seat. Basit had given the slogan in the Muslim village, ‘Ton doori hai, na khai hai, Thakur Ramveer is our brother.’ Not only this, BJP also tried to garner Turk Muslim versus Rajput Muslim votes.
Muslims strongly supported Ramveer
Haji Rizwan, who was contesting from SP, was a Turk, against whom a move was made to woo Rajput Muslims, in which Basit Ali played the role. Basit Ali is a Muslim Rajput and he made inroads among the Muslim votes by calling Thakur Ramveer Singh his brother. Mundhapande village in Kundarki assembly constituency is Muslim dominated. Ramveer Singh had come here to address a street meeting. People of Muslim community had weighed Ramveer Singh with money. Ramveer Thakur expressed his gratitude towards the people by putting the money on his forehead. The Muslims of the village had told Ramveer Singh that we will break the myth that Muslims do not vote for BJP. We will also vote for Ramveer and give notes to contest the elections. Muslims have voted heavily for BJP in Kundarki, which is also clear from the results.
Muslim voters play a decisive role in Kundarki assembly seat. Muslim voters are 62 percent, which is around 1.5 lakh. There are about 40 thousand Turkic Muslims in Kundarki, while there are about 1 lakh 10 thousand other Muslim castes. Apart from this, around 18 percent are Dalit and the rest are Hindu voters. Thakur has the highest number of Hindu votes followed by people of Saini community. SP and BSP have been registering victory here only because of Muslim votes. The biggest challenge for BJP is to register victory, which is not possible without Muslim votes.
Dominance of Turk Muslims on Kundarki seat
Muslim politics in Kundarki has been dominated by Turkish Muslims. In this election also, SP, BSP and Owaisi have made Turk Muslims their candidates, in response to which BJP is busy wooing Rajput Muslims. BJP candidate Ramveer Singh Thakur has used every possible means to break into the Muslim Rajput community. Ramveer, who was continuously trying his luck from this seat, tried to win trust by claiming that he was a Thakur. Ramveer Singh kept calling himself a sympathizer of Muslims, as a result of which the Muslim community voted overwhelmingly in his favor.
BJP knows that Kundarki seat cannot be won with Hindu votes. That is why the focus was on Muslim votes. After 19 rounds of counting of votes, SP candidate Hathi Rizwan has got 12937 votes, BJP candidate Ramveer Singh has got 111470 votes. Chand Babu of Azad Samaj Party has got 6020 votes. In this way, BJP candidate Ramveer Singh is leading by about one lakh votes. A total of 32 rounds of counting of votes are to take place in Kundarki seat. The way BJP’s Ramveer Singh is leading, victory is considered certain. In such a situation, it is clear that Muslims have voted for BJP in large numbers in Kundarki seat, due to which the lotus seems to be blooming.
BJP got victory after 1993
BJP had last won Kundarki seat in the year 1993. At that time BJP leader Chandravijay Singh had won. Since then BJP could never win this seat. In such a situation, this time BJP state president Bhupendra Chaudhary had taken command to win the seat in Kundarki. The political pairing of Kunwar Basil Ali and Ramveer Singh has been a hit. Haji Rizwan’s lack of strong hold among Muslims was also favorable for BJP. Not only this, due to his belonging to Muslim Turk caste, other Muslim communities have rallied in favor of BJP. In such a situation, BJP was successful in spreading lotus among 65 percent Muslims.
