In a development that will bring some cheer to ‘secular’ parties banking on maximum Muslim support in the UP elections later this year, two Muslim Fronts set up seven months ago — the People’s Democratic Front (PDF) and United Democratic Front (UDF) — are all set to collapse.The PDF, the front headed by Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawwad, proved a virtual non-starter when he resigned in October last year, saying that there was no real unity emerging to merit such a front. Now, the UDF — the Sunni religious leader, the Imam of Jama Masjid, Ahmed Bukhari is its leading light — set up as an umbrella group of about twelve to fourteen Muslim parties and social organisations is likely to meet its end.The Muslim Majlis, the last of the serious Muslim political organisations affiliated to the front at the moment (other constituents such as the Momeen Conference, Parcham Party, National League, Muslim Forum and Loktantrik Party have slowly drifted away over the past two to three months), is also pulling out.UDF vice-president and Muslim Majlis leader Khalid Sabir said: “The collapse was coming for a while. We did not see it as a ‘Muslim’ party at all. We simply wanted a front to consolidate Muslim votes, so their interests could be protected and votes cast in each constituency depending on the work done by the candidates. The leaders tried to register the front as a ‘party’ which was not acceptable to all of us. It would only help to polarize politics in the state along communal lines. Our intention was the opposite. So we have decided to formally pull out.UDF’s chairman in UP, Mohammed Yusuf Ansari, a senior advocate based in western UP, formerly in the Congress (but now better known as the brother of the controversial Minister of Minority Affairs in UP, Yaqoub Ansari who offered a huge sum of money for the head of the Danish cartoonist who made cartoons purportedly of Prophet Mohammed, enraging Muslims the world over last year) could not be contacted for comment but sources in the UDF also blame the control exercised unduly by Ahmed Bukhari and then his falling out with the chairman Yusuf Ansari in December-end as having exacerbated matters further.The Imam of the Jama Masjid in Delhi, Ahmed Bukhari’s office refused to comment on this, but his confidante and also secretary of the UDF, Rahat Mahmood said, “It is true that some people have misgivings on our registering ourselves as a party. But it is only practical to register our UP unit as a party, else we will be like VP Singh’s Jan Morcha, unable to turn support into votes.” Mahmood claims the UDF will contest at least 50-60 seats in the forthcoming UP polls as a party, and the idea of a Muslim party can be judged as a success or failure only once the poll is over. However, the new crisis in the UDF, threatening its very existence, has its origins in the recent local elections in the state. The UDF contested only from Allahabad (putting up, interestingly, a non-Muslim candidate) and Meerut, in the recent civic polls, losing both, but people like Mahmood say they proved they could ensure a sizeable section of the Muslim vote comes to one side.But detractors within the front say the opposite, citing the paltry thirty thousand-odd votes secured in Allahabad mayoral elections as proof that even Muslims aren`t buying the ‘Muslim’ Party plan. Both the ‘Muslim’ Fronts, the PDF and the UDF were formally set up in June last year, causing mainstream parties like the Samajwadi and the Congress to panic, anticipating further splintering amongst the much coveted Muslim vote in UP.Just this week, speaking at ‘Idea Exchange’ organised by The Indian Express, the Chief Minister of UP, Mulayam Singh Yadav said that Muslim Fronts were not a good development. According to various estimates, of the 403 constituencies in the state, 125 constituencies are such where Muslims constitute between 20-25 per cent of the electorate, and in about 60 constituencies, they number between 35 and 40 per cent.
