Lucknow, March 6: Is the crucial Muslim vote bank of the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) drifting away? Even while party leaders say there is nothing that could "alienate the minorities", community leaders have begun to openly speak of their "early disenchantment" with SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
Minority leaders were angered by the SP chief's recent statement in parliament that the differences between his party and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could disappear in near future if it gave up certain issues that the SP had antipathy to.
"What was the reason for Mulayam Singh to make such a unprovoked and unthought of statement," questioned Syed Tabrez, a cleric, who said he had voted for the SP in last year's assembly polls but was now vary of it.
"Mulayam Singh in the past too has romanced anti-Muslim leaders like Kalyan Singh for his narrow political gains so what is the guarantee that he would not cheat the Muslims again for his own benefit," asked Naseemuddin Siddiqui, senior BSP leader and leader of opposition in the legislative council, charging that the SP was never serious about the Muslims' welfare.
