Back to basics may not help Mulayam

NEW DELHI: SP’s project to woo back Muslims in Uttar Pradesh appears to be fraught with challenges, even as the party rehashes the formula of returning to its hard-line avataar in a bid to outwit Congress.

The choice of Maharashtra MLA Abu Asim Azmi as its new Muslim mascot bears the stamp of a brand of politics that might take a lot to sell to the state’s minority voters.

Mr Azmi, the Maharashtra MLA who morphed into an overnight sensation after being roughed-up by MNS legislators for refusing to take oath in Marathi in the state assembly, is the SP’s representative of the state’s Muslims as well as a nationalistic saviour of the Hindi-speaking people.

He is being primed to fill in the place vacated by Azam Khan, a key Muslim face of the party, who left in protest over the induction of Mr Kalyan Singh, the former BJP leader who presided over the fall of the Babri Masjid as Chief Minister.

It is unclear if Mr Azmi will appeal to the minority voter whose loyalty to the SP in UP owed something to the there-is-no-alternative factor. But this could have changed with the revival of Congress as results of the Lok Sabha elections and the recent by-polls show.

SP appears to have been shaken more by its defeats in Mr Mulayam Singh’s home turf of Etawah and Barthana than by its loss in the Firozabad LS seat.