In North East Delhi, BSP plays the Muslim card, rake up the Masjid and graveyard issues

The Bahujan Samaj Party is not the media's darling. Mayawati doesn't make for pretty pictures and is known for her caustic remarks. So the shutterbugs keep away. Behenji has done away with political stereotypes shunning khadi in favor of garish silk kurtas and heavy gold jewelry, perhaps an assertion that she too has arrived.
Interacting with the party workers so far has been a daunting task. Nobody confirms anything, nobody leaks news. Everything is guarded. But considering it is an alternative for the people who are frustrated with the way things are, and say they might just go with the elephant this time, the party is an emerging power front. In Delhi, they are fighting all seven seats alone. This was a piece done for the Indian Express on the party's dark horse Haji Dilshad Ali who is contesting in North East Delhi, where migrant population is dominant and Muslims are in large numbers. This is the original draft. An edited version was published in the Indian Express on April 1, 2009.


Chinki Sinha
New Delhi, March 31, 2009

In the narrow alleyways of Kabir Nagar in North East Delhi, where mountains of garbage are a common sight, and houses stand neck to neck jostling for breathing space, the BSP office is abuzz with activity at all hours.
Community elders, party workers and those seeking favors keep filtering in and out of the glass doors that are plastered with posters of Mayawati and the BSP's North East candidate Haji Dilshad. It is here that they are counting on the Muslims to help them claim the seat.
Dilshad Ali is the party’s dark horse who contested the Assembly elections last year from Babarpur constituency and garnered around 28,000 votes.
In Delhi, BSP is the only party to give three Muslim candidates tickets - Haji Yunus from the East Delhi, Haji Dilshad from the North-east Delhi and Mustkeem Ahmed (Billo) from the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat.
On Dec. 9, 2008, the party high command cleared Dilshad Ali’s name for candidacy in the area, and ever since then, he has been working with about 1,200 party workers to make sure the BSP emerges as the third option for the community that is frustrated with the state of things.
What also helps is that the Congress and the BJP both have not pitched Muslim candidates from the area. So there will be no cutting into the votes, Dilshad Ali says.
In fact Varun Gandhi’s comments on the community has come at the right time for the party in the area. Betrayal rings in the comments, Anno Netani, another party worker
says.
"No Muslim will vote for the BJP here," she said.
For the Muslims, it is Haji’s name that is reassuring. It is almost as if asserting their presence through Dilshad Ali.
“You know Muslims are like the tezpatta in Biryani, only for flavour.
We are only vote banks,” Mohd. Nasir, who is also Dilshad Ali’s driver, said. “He is from our community. He knows.”
While the party's ideology of an inclusive society where the minorities and the oppressed will be given a chance is at the core, the party is making the most of the local issues this election season.
The top of the agenda is the graveyard that caters to the Muslims in Mustafabad, Kabir Nagar, and Babarpur. It has no boundary and heaps of garbage surround it and dogs sniff around the graves. For the local Muslims, it is an emotional issue and the party is only too willing to use it in the campaign.
While the BSP has no manifesto, the party workers say it is the idea of the “Samtamulak Samaj Vyavastha” that will get them the votes.
For months now the bhaichara samitis, a core program of the BSP’s modus operandi, has been functional in the area, holding meetings and bringing people together. There are around 10-12 bhaichara samitis in one Vidhan Sabha.