In this Muslim Village of West Uttar Pradesh, Many Prefer Yogi Adityanath over Akhilesh Yadav

In a fiercely contested election in West Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to be making inroads in the Muslim community.

With 97% Muslim population, Nangla Sahu had a few villagers who started supporting the BJP post the 2014 elections that saw Narendra Modi become the Prime Minister of India.

The number grew with Yogi handling the reins of the state. The Muslim community is traditionally the vote bank of Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) or anyone who can take on the BJP.

Amid accusations by the SP and its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) that the BJP polarizes the state for electoral gains, a significant number of residents of Nangla Sahu village in Kithore assembly is on a mission to ensure that at least half the village votes for the BJP.

Villagers believe that Modi-Yogi has brought “peace” to their village, giving them “relief from SP leader and MLA Shahid Manzoor”. Youngsters claim there used to be open firing, making it impossible to have a fear-free life.

Rehan Chauhan, a 22-year-old engineering student, says, “There was lot of crime pre-2014, which has minimized after 2017. In Yogi government, we learned what living a peaceful life with cleaner surroundings means.”

Arsh Mohammed, a village elder, says he can now sleep peacefully at night without the fear of thieves stealing their animals. “Jis din se Yogi aaye hain, koi chor hi nahi raha (The day Yogi came, thieves have stopped coming),” says Mohammed, sitting with a group of elders discussing politics.

Ask him about Akhilesh Yadav’s allegations of polarization by the BJP, pat comes the reply. “Akhilesh galat keh raha hai, woh to rajneeti kar rahe hai. (Akhilesh is making false accusations, it is politics.) The BJP is uniting not dividing.”

Another village elder, Yamin, feels “ghana badhiya” in the BJP government as “bhains khulna band ho gaya” (No one steals the cattle now). Ask him about the BJP being a party of Hindus as alleged by the opposition and Yamin counters, “Hindu ki party to sari hain, par sare se behtar hai yu. (Every party is of Hindus, but the BJP is the best).”

Yamin said when villagers supporting SP ask him about his choice, he says, “Hamara man lag raha usme. (We are liking them).”

As for Sanawar who works in advertising, introduction of GST changed the way he operated his venture. Also, the BJP MLA ensured a pucca road to go for namaz. He claims he has taken videos of SP leaders issuing threats. “This was the goondagardi we had. Talk about Kairana, they let Hindus fight Muslims,” he says.

Anwar, the block pramukh of BJP, says that in 2017, of the 3,000 votes, 811 were polled by the BJP and in this elections, the figure will cross 1,200.

“My cousin has come from Italy. He has worked in ISRO and he received Rs 27-lakh scholarship per year from the government. What else can we expect from the government? We only want help for the future generations. Also, 85% of the village is vaccinated and many have even received the booster dose,” he adds.

Sona, Sehnuma, Noor Jahan, Diljahan and Israt are happy about are receiving free ration and crime has gone down in the village.

Realising that improved law and order situation connects well with everyone and is their strongest plank to woo voters, the BJP leaders too have started to highlight the difference between the SP and Yogi government.

Read all the Latest Politics News here