Are UP's Muslims disenchanted with the Samajwadi Party?

Syed Imam Bukhari, the Imam of Delhi Jama Maszid, has also been openly critical of the state government which he once helped come to power. Regretting the support he extended to the SP in the 2012 state assembly polls by openly campaigning for it, Bukhari told IANS that if "the situation was allowed to continue in the way it is, the results of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls would be very 'mukhtalif' (different) from the 2012 state assembly polls."



Pointing out the widening drift, he said that minorities were not feeling secure in Akhilesh Yadav's regime. In a complete turnaround from his stance during the assembly elections, he went on to call the state government a "zaalim hukumat" (cruel government).

Muslim leaders also point out the rising instances of communal clashes since the new government has come to power. Between March 2012 and December 2012, the state government has admitted that 27 communal clashes, riots and other instances of violence had taken place in the state. These include three major communal riots at Mathura, Bareilly and Faizabad and minor communal flare ups in Pratapgarh, Ghaziabad, Bareilly, Sambhal, Bijnore, Allahabad, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Lucknow, Kushinagar, Sitapur, Bahraich, Sant Ravidas Nagar and Moradabad.

The brutal killing of deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Zia-ul-Haq in Pratapgarh allegedly at the hands of a SP minster who later resigned has also added to the drift. With this incident, the minority leaders seem to have put the state government on notice.

"This is how we are treated by this government," said Salim, a Muslim resident of the Deoria village to which the deceased police officer belonged.