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Political experts say the pre-poll temple visit by SP candidate Naseem Solanki may have been a calculated move considering Sisamau seat’s unique caste combination. On Saturday, she managed to win the seat previously 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 Assembly bypolls. (PTI)
What explains the Samajwadi Party’s victory in the Sisamau Assembly bypoll in Kanpur? According to political experts, the temple visit controversy shifted the electoral tide in favour of the Akhilesh Yadav-led party and aligned the complex caste equations in its favour.
UP Bypolls: Fiercely Fought
A direct fight between the BJP and the SP, the Uttar Pradesh bypolls, held on nine Assembly constituencies, witnessed some of the fiercest campaigning in the history of the state.
Of the nine constituencies, BJP won six, while its ally RLD won one. The opposition Samajwadi Party won the remaining two, including 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 am thankful to the almighty, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and all those who supported me throughout,” Solanki told News18 after her electoral win. She said her first port of call following the victory would be her jailed husband, former MLA Irfan Solanki.
Solanki had lost his membership in the UP Assembly in June this year after a court sentenced him and four others to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for setting a woman’s house on fire in the Jajmau area.
Temple Visit Controversy
Along with a sympathy wave, what seemed to have worked in Naseem Solanki’s favour is a controversial temple visit that swayed non-Muslim votes in her favour.
“No doubt Naseem Solanki benefited from sympathy votes due to her husband, former Sisamau MLA Irfan Solanki’s, imprisonment. However, sympathy alone couldn’t secure her victory in a constituency where non-Muslim votes are decisive. It was the temple visit controversy that was the game-changer, swaying non-Muslim voters in her favour. This shift played a pivotal role in Naseem Solanki’s triumph in the closely fought bypoll,” said Shashikant Pandey, political analyst and head of the Department of Political Science at Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar University in Lucknow.
On October 31, Naseem Solanki visited the Vankhandeshwar Temple in Sisamau and performed traditional prayers, offering holy water and lighting diyas as part of Diwali celebrations. The videos of her temple visit were widely circulated by SP supporters on social media, provoking debate within the Muslim community, some of whom expressed concerns over the “religious implications” of her visit.
‘Shuddhikaran’ And Fatwa
The controversy snowballed when the Hindu community, too, raised strong objection to her temple visit, followed by the alleged shuddhikaran or purification of the temple. The ruling BJP accused the SP candidate of using the temple visit as a “political stunt” aimed at influencing Hindu voters.
Another headache followed for Naseem Solanki, with the All India Muslim Jamaat, which represents the Barelvi sect of Islam, issuing a fatwa against her, calling her actions un-Islamic under Sharia law.
In response, the SP candidate said she wasn’t praying at the temple. “I was just passing by. The workers who were with me suggested that I should light a diya and extend Diwali greetings, so that was the reason for my visit. I was neither trying to embrace any religion nor was offering puja at the temple,” she told News18.
The Impact On Caste Equations
Political observers say the temple visit might have been a calculate move on the part of the Samajwadi Party considering Sisamau’s unique caste demographics. Known to be an SP stronghold, the constituency has consistently supported the party for the past six elections.
“This Muslim-Dalit-Brahmin-dominated area has a Muslim voter base of approximately 1,11,000, followed by 70,000 Brahmin voters and 60,000 Dalit voters. Other influential groups include 26,000 Kayasthas, 6,000 Sindhis and Punjabis, 6,000 Kshatriyas, and over 12,400 OBC voters. Given this diverse caste composition, the SP candidate’s temple visit, which may have been aimed at courting Brahmin voters, raises speculation about it being a political strategy,” said Pandey.
The Solanki family has represented the seat for decades, beginning with Irfan’s father, Haji Mushtaq. Despite a strong Modi wave in the 2017 Assembly elections, Irfan Solanki defeated BJP’s Suresh Awasthi, and in 2022, won against Salil Vishnoi by a 12,000-vote margin.
- Location :
Uttar Pradesh, India
