As she prepares for her Prime Ministerial ambitions, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Saturday attributed the “anxiety” among the Muslims after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks as a reason for the community rallying behind Congress in the recently held Delhi Assembly elections.

“We had good support of the Muslim community in the state (Delhi). However, Mumbai terror attacks before the elections created anxiety among the community, creating fears about BJP winning. This anxiety led the community to rally behind the Congress,” Mayawati is learnt to have told BSP’s Delhi unit during a meeting to “plan a win” in the Lok Sabha elections.

Delhi went to polls on November 29 last year, three days after Mumbai terror attacks.

Mayawati pointed out that the advertisements taken out by the BJP in all major newspapers after the terror attacks was one of the reasons that added to the “anxiety” of her minority support base in Delhi.

Mayawati’s response came against party workers’ assessment of the expected Muslim support during the Delhi elections. The meeting today was a follow-up of BSP’s state unit’s analysis of its “below par” performance in the Delhi elections, despite the party’s senior-most Muslim leader Nasimuddin Siddiqui handling the election campaign in the Muslim-dominated areas of Delhi.

“Workers had told her that the reason for the loss was that very few Muslim votes went in favour of the party,” a senior leader told Newsline on the condition of anonymity after the closed door meeting of BSP workers at Mavlankar Bhavan in the Capital. Leaders of the party’s Delhi unit had predicted, as reported by Newsline earlier, that the party could win at least 13 seats if the Muslim votes go in their favour.

To counter the losses suffered during the Assembly elections, Mayawati said the party would woo the Muslim voters in the Capital. She also instructed her party workers to focus on all sections of the society and lay special emphasis on the youth.

The party had announced Muslim candidates for the Chandni Chowk, East Delhi and Northeast Delhi constituencies — Haji Mustaqeen, Dr Asif Khan and Haji Dilshad, respectively.

Mayawati also ruled out all possibilities of entering into an alliance with any party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in the country and asked her party workers to start campaign work at full steam.

Pointing to the increased 14.5 per cent votes polled by the BSP in the Delhi elections, Mayawati asked the candidates to work in their respective constituencies and “gain enough support even before other parties begin their campaigns,” sources said.