ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846 Muslims in Uttar Pradesh Caste, Class and Electoral Politics HILAL AHMED Vol. 49, Issue No. 18, 03 May, 2014 Hilal Ahmed (ahmed.hilal@gmail.com ) is Assistant Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing societies, New Delhi. The political parties need to redefine their engagement with Muslim communities in Uttar Pradesh and go beyond the imaginary phenomenon of “Muslim vote bank”. Instead of just limiting themselves to issues regarding their safety and security, the political parties need to take cognizance of the existing diversity within Muslims based on caste and class and address their socio-economic concerns. The election campaign for mobilising Muslim voters in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh (UP) is substantially different from other parts of the country in two ways. Unlike other states, secularism as a political agenda has made a significant comeback in UP elections. The Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013, and subsequent debates on the efficacy of administration in dealing with the rehabilitation of riot-victims, which had already become serious political issues even before the elections, are re-conceptualised as a threat to secularism. The Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Congress and even the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seem to evoke the communal/secular binary to approach Muslims of the states as voters. Secondly, the presence of Narendra Modi as a BJP candidate in Banaras makes the election process in the state quite distinctive. The so-called development-centric Modi campaign has almost remained silent on “Muslim empowerment” (though Rajnath Singh has been actively trying to bring in the Muslim factor). On the other hand, the BJP’s manifesto, which tries to create a favourable equilibrium between Hindutva and development, is being politically interpreted either in relation to the history of anti-Muslim communal violence in the country, especially by the Congress and the SP, or as “Hindu determination and heroism” by local BJP leaders. The outcome of this distinctive election canvassing is quite obvious. The Muslim voters of the state are again addressed in a conventional political language, which forces the Muslims to respond merely to the issues of “protection” and “security”. We also observe a revival of an old political strategy for reaching out to Muslim electorates. Almost all political parties (including the BJP) approach Muslims religious-political leaders or influential personalities to get some kind of political legitimacy. Imam Ahmad Bukhari’s appeal to Muslims to vote