New Muslim leaders help SP brace for polls

Induction of prominent Muslim leaders from the BSP and Congress over the last year is likely to strengthen Samajwadi Party’s Muslim leadership, even as its veteran leader Azam Khan remains inactive due to jail time and poor health and Asaduddin Owaisi's entry into the fray in Uttar Pradesh raises fresh challenges.
Among the tall Muslim leaders who joined the SP in recent months include former Congress leader Salim Iqbal Sherwani, a five-time MP from Badaun and friend of Rajiv Gandhi. Sherwani, 68, had joined the SP in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition, but returned to the Congress in 2009 when the SP chose Dharmendra Yadav, a nephew of Mulayam Singh Yadav, over him for a party ticket.

Sherwani is already being made to share the stage with party chief Akhilesh Yadav in many important programmes held by the SP, including the kisan mahapanchayat that was held in Aligarh in March, in a strong message to the Muslim community.

More recently, the SP has welcomed Sibgatullah Ansari, the eldest of the Ansari brothers and a former BSP MLA from Mohammadabad in Ghazipur, and his son into the party. The Ansaris, who also include BSP MP Afzal Ansari as well as (now ex-BSP MLA) Mukhtar Ansari, wield considerable clout over Muslims in the Purvanchal districts of Ghazipur and Mau, and surrounding areas.

Other Muslim leaders with strong influence in their respective districts who joined the SP include former BSP MP from Sitapur Kaiser Jahan, who had joined the Congress ahead of the 2019 general elections, as well as four-time MLA from Shahabad in Hardoi Babu Khan and ex-BSP MP from Lakhimpur Daud Ahmed.

SP sources said while not everyone who had come into the party would get a ticket and this had also not been a prerequisite for their entry, the exodus from the BSP and Congress highlighted the erosion of minority leadership in those parties.

"There is a mela (fair) at the party headquarters these days with scores of people wanting to join which is a strong sign that the party is coming to power," said IP Singh, SP’s national spokesperson. "While many Muslim leaders have joined and are working for the party including Salim Sherwani and even Abu Azmi, there is no replacement for Azam Khan," he said.