Of the 25 odd seats that the Congress won in the 2002 Uttar Pradesh elections, the victory in Aligarh was arguably the most significant. The party’s affable young candidate Vivek Bansal managed to wrest the seat from the BJP—and two years later Congressman Chaudhury Bijendra Singh followed that feat by winning the Aligarh Lok Sabha seat as well. The party readily admits that neither victory would have been possible if the Muslims of Aligarh had not backed the Congress candidates to the hilt.

It is, therefore, a measure of the average Muslim’s disenchantment with the Congress as much as a sign of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s increasing grip over the community that today Vivek Bansal is fighting with his back to the wall. Although Bansal tries to put up a brave front and his posters and Congress flags are visible all over the city, it is clear that he is a deeply worried man — wondering if the polls on April 13 will be a repeat of the November mayoral elections.

In that election, the Samajwadi Party — which has never had much hold in Aligarh — did surprisingly well and a division of the crucial Muslim vote led to the BJP bagging the seat. The Congress ended up third. There were also allegations that Congress candidate Sushil Choudhury had an RSS background. Mohammad Furqan Ahmad, a former Aligarh Muslim University Students Union president and Congress candidate in the1989 assembly elections, resigned in protest and recently joined the Samajwadi Party.

Explaining his reasons for quitting the Congress, Furqan Ahmad says, “Congress vote lena chahte Musalmanon se, par dena kuch nahi chahate” (the Congress wants to get Muslim votes but does not want to give anything to Muslims.) Although Muslims backed the Congress, the party did not bother to give any representation to the community. “We have a Jat MP, a ‘bania’ MLA — but if we ask for a Muslim mayoral candidate, we are dubbed communal,” he adds, failing to hide his bitterness at being denied the ticket.

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