AFTER THE BJP, the Samajwadi Party (SP) is reaching out to Pasmanda Muslims and will launch a year-long drive starting July for the community that will involve a range of programmes and events.
Comprising the socially, educationally and economically backward groups among the Muslims, the Pasmandas constitute a large majority of the community.
An SP leader estimated that around 85% of Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, across 48 castes, are from Pasmanda groups. The remaining 15% are upper-caste Muslims from the Sheikh, Syed, Mughal and Pathan communities. The SP counts Muslims as among its big vote banks in UP.
The design and the structure of SP’s drive was formulated at a meeting of party president Akhilesh Yadav and Pasmanda Samaj leaders earlier this month, a day after the Samjawadi Alpsankhyak Sabha, the minority wing of the party, held a meeting.
As part of the drive, SP sources said, the party will first hold meetings with members of the Pasmanda Muslim community in all 403 Assembly constituencies of the state. This will be followed by district-level conventions, culminating in a state-level public meeting in the run-up to the 2027 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
SP national secretary Anis Mansoori, who is also the president of the Pasmanda Muslim Samaj, an umbrella organisation of the community, told The Indian Express that the SP would truly “empower” the group.
“In these meetings and conventions (as part of the drive), we will convince the Pasmanda community that they should not fall into the BJP’s trap. The BJP shows concern for the community only for votes… It (the BJP) does nothing for their empowerment. The Pasmanda community will be part of the SP’s organisation and government when the party comes to power in the state,” Mansoori said.
Mansoori added that the BJP’s Pasmanda outreach efforts were meant to divide the Muslim vote, hence hurting the SP. “Our apprehension is that if Pasmandas vote for the BJP, it will cut off a major chunk of Muslims. Muslims and Yadavs are the SP’s core voters… Akhilesh ji has assured us that all the problems of the Pasmanda community will be addressed if the SP comes to power,” he said.
The SP is framing the outreach as part of its PDA (Pichchda, Dalit and alpsankhyak) formula. A press release after the meeting with Pasmanda leaders said the SP would give the community “political honour”.
The BJP has been trying to make inroads into the Pasmanda community since 2022. At his speech at a BJP national executive conclave held in Hyderabad in July that year, Modi asked the party to reach out to “deprived and downtrodden” sections in all communities. According to UP BJP insiders, its calculations showed that an estimated 8% of voters from the community favoured the party in the Assembly polls that year, even though the SP had a strong alliance with other OBC-based regional parties.
Since then, Pasmanda Muslims have been the subject of several BJP outreach initiatives, from sammelans and sneh yatras to meetings with intellectuals.
Reacting on the SP’s campaign, UP BJP’s minority wing state president Kunvar Basit Ali said: “The SP is afraid of the BJP’s efforts to get Muslim votes. Muslims are supporting the BJP now for their development and growth.”
