Temple Go to, Shuddhikaran & Fatwa: How Daughter-in-Legislation Naseem Prolonged Solanki Maintain On Sisamau – News18
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Political consultants say the pre-poll temple go to by SP candidate Naseem Solanki might have been a calculated transfer contemplating Sisamau seat’s distinctive caste mixture. On Saturday, she managed to win the seat beforehand held by her now-jailed husband
SP candidate Naseem Solanki defeated her closest rival, BJP’s Suresh Awasthi, by a margin of 8,564 votes in Sisamau Meeting bypolls. (PTI)
What explains the Samajwadi Social gathering’s victory within the Sisamau Meeting bypoll in Kanpur? In response to political consultants, the temple go to controversy shifted the electoral tide in favour of the Akhilesh Yadav-led celebration and aligned the advanced caste equations in its favour.
UP Bypolls: Fiercely Fought
A direct combat between the BJP and the SP, the Uttar Pradesh bypolls, held on 9 Meeting constituencies, witnessed a few of the fiercest campaigning within the historical past of the state.
Of the 9 constituencies, BJP received six, whereas its ally RLD received one. The opposition Samajwadi Social gathering received the remaining two, together with Sisamau. On this seat, SP candidate Naseem Solanki defeated her closest rival, BJP’s Suresh Awasthi, by a margin of 8,564 votes. Solanki bagged 69,714 votes, Awasthi managed 61,150 votes.
“I’m grateful to the almighty, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and all those that supported me all through,” Solanki instructed News18 after her electoral win. She mentioned her first port of name following the victory could be her jailed husband, former MLA Irfan Solanki.
Solanki had misplaced his membership within the UP Meeting in June this yr after a court docket sentenced him and 4 others to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for setting a girl’s home on hearth within the Jajmau space.
Temple Go to Controversy
Together with a sympathy wave, what appeared to have labored in Naseem Solanki’s favour is a controversial temple go to that swayed non-Muslim votes in her favour.
“Little question Naseem Solanki benefited from sympathy votes attributable to her husband, former Sisamau MLA Irfan Solanki’s, imprisonment. Nonetheless, sympathy alone couldn’t safe her victory in a constituency the place non-Muslim votes are decisive. It was the temple go to controversy that was the game-changer, swaying non-Muslim voters in her favour. This shift performed a pivotal function in Naseem Solanki’s triumph within the intently fought bypoll,” mentioned Shashikant Pandey, political analyst and head of the Division of Political Science at Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar College in Lucknow.
On October 31, Naseem Solanki visited the Vankhandeshwar Temple in Sisamau and carried out conventional prayers, providing holy water and lighting diyas as a part of Diwali celebrations. The movies of her temple go to had been broadly circulated by SP supporters on social media, scary debate inside the Muslim neighborhood, a few of whom expressed considerations over the “spiritual implications” of her go to.
‘Shuddhikaran’ And Fatwa
The controversy snowballed when the Hindu neighborhood, too, raised sturdy objection to her temple go to, adopted by the alleged shuddhikaran or purification of the temple. The ruling BJP accused the SP candidate of utilizing the temple go to as a “political stunt” geared toward influencing Hindu voters.
One other headache adopted for Naseem Solanki, with the All India Muslim Jamaat, which represents the Barelvi sect of Islam, issuing a fatwa in opposition to her, calling her actions un-Islamic underneath Sharia regulation.
In response, the SP candidate mentioned she wasn’t praying on the temple. “I used to be simply passing by. The employees who had been with me prompt that I ought to gentle a diya and prolong Diwali greetings, in order that was the explanation for my go to. I used to be neither attempting to embrace any faith nor was providing puja on the temple,” she instructed News18.
The Influence On Caste Equations
Political observers say the temple go to may need been a calculate transfer on the a part of the Samajwadi Social gathering contemplating Sisamau’s distinctive caste demographics. Recognized to be an SP stronghold, the constituency has constantly supported the celebration for the previous six elections.
“This Muslim-Dalit-Brahmin-dominated space has a Muslim voter base of roughly 1,11,000, adopted by 70,000 Brahmin voters and 60,000 Dalit voters. Different influential teams embrace 26,000 Kayasthas, 6,000 Sindhis and Punjabis, 6,000 Kshatriyas, and over 12,400 OBC voters. Given this numerous caste composition, the SP candidate’s temple go to, which can have been geared toward courting Brahmin voters, raises hypothesis about it being a political technique,” mentioned Pandey.
The Solanki household has represented the seat for many years, starting with Irfan’s father, Haji Mushtaq. Regardless of a robust Modi wave within the 2017 Meeting elections, Irfan Solanki defeated BJP’s Suresh Awasthi, and in 2022, received in opposition to Salil Vishnoi by a 12,000-vote margin.
- Location :
Uttar Pradesh, India
