Lucknow: Long queues of Muslims were seen outside polling booths in western Uttar Pradesh (UP), many of them standing for hours to cast their vote in the first phase of urban local body polls on Thursday.

Such queues, especially in minority-dominated districts, have long been used to interpret voting behaviour of the most influential and politically vocal minority segment.

In places like Saharanpur and Moradabad in west UP, where the Muslim population is over 30 per cent and in Muslim-majority Rampur where voting took place on Thursday, women clad in burqa and men in skull caps stood for long to cast their vote.

But some said assessing the minority mood just by looking at the number of burqa-clad and skull cap-wearing people in the voters’ queue, may not reveal the entire picture.

“Unlike previous occasions when Muslims standing in queue was automatically interpreted in a particular way, this time many were confused, for the BJP fielded 395 candidates of its own, the biggest batch of Muslim candidates ever. So, the long queues of community members also included supporters of candidates fielded by our party. At least two have been elected unopposed,” said BJP’s minority wing chief in west UP Javed Malik.

“At many places, the BSP has fielded several Muslim candidates, especially for the mayoral seats. Now, this has made the polls interesting. With the BJP also fielding several minority candidates, assessing the community’s support to any one party is difficult. In a way, after the 2022 UP polls when Muslims were believed to have backed the Samajwadi Party in a big way, this time, though their turnout was impressive, one can’t confidently state which way the minority voted,” said AP Tiwari, a political analyst.

However, Rafey Rana, brother of well-known Urdu poet Munawwar Rana told media persons that people in Muslim-dominated regions faced problems.

In Muslim-majority Rampur, where the BJP registered a win for the first time in Rampur (Sadar) assembly polls, SP and BJP workers clashed amid allegations of foul play in Madrasa Alia booth number 225-226.

In Saharanpur, some minority community members told media persons that they were made to wait for over several hours to cast their vote and alleged it was a deliberate attempt to stop minorities from casting vote.

The SP has maintained that the BJP’s victories in Rampur Lok Sabha by-poll in June 2022 and the assembly poll in Rampur (Sadar) were due to misuse of official machinery, a charge that the ruling party rejected. For the record, west UP districts like Shamli and Amroha witnessed over 60 per cent voter turnout. In Prayagraj, where posters appealed to the community against voting for BJP and SP, the overall voting percentage remained comparatively low.

“One way to assess which way the community voted is check if the minorities are keeping mum or singing paeans in BJP’s praise. It’s true that free rations have helped all poor. including Muslims,” a BJP leader said.