UP Election 2017: Mayawati makes a direct pitch for the Muslim vote

India वोट Kar | March 1, 2017

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati used a rally in Gorakhpur on Sunday to make an unusually direct appeal to Muslim voters during the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, a contest that appeared to have no clear wave.

A one-sided vote

The BSP wins a share of Muslim support in every election in the state, but this time Mayawati was openly seeking the community’s ek tarafa, or one-sided, vote. Her outreach was described as more pointed than in any earlier election.

What she said in Gorakhpur

For most of the speech, which ran close to an hour, she repeated her core promise of firm government that would not tolerate anarchy, crime or rioting, and that would end insecurity and fear. About 10 minutes in, however, she broke off to speak to Muslims directly.

She claimed the Samajwadi Party was split into rival Shivpal and Akhilesh camps working to defeat each other’s candidates. She also hinted at closeness between the BJP and the SP, pointing out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attended a wedding in Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family in Saifai.

On that basis, she warned that the Muslim vote would be wasted and would help the BJP unless the community backed the BSP as a bloc, adding that the party’s Dalit base was already united.

What happened next

When the 2017 Uttar Pradesh results came in, the BJP won 312 seats, the Samajwadi Party 47 and the BSP 19. Yogi Adityanath became Chief Minister after the election.

Originally published on 1 March 2017. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.