New Delhi, May 11: The Muslims in Uttar Pradesh have spoken — Mulayam Singh Yadav is no longer their first choice. Mayavati is now the beneficiary of the tactical voting by the minority community in the state.

Of the 62 constituencies where Muslims account for more than 20 per cent of the population, the BSP has improved its tally from 10 in the last election to 22 this time while the Samajwadi Party has been reduced from 24 in the 2002 Assembly polls to 13.

Observers feel the message for Mulayam may turn out to be much more ominous than a mere electoral setback in some of the Muslim-dominated seats.

The Muslim-Yadav electoral alliance that has so far provided the bedrock for Mulayam’s political edifice seems to have suffered irreparable damage.

The disenchantment of the Muslims with the Samajwadi Party could well be understood. There was a general feeling that Mulayam’s social justice plank had over a period of time degenerated into blatant partiality towards Yadavs — especially the politically connected ones.

The Muslims — who account for 18 per cent of the total population of Uttar Pradesh and were crucial to Mulayam’s political survival — had received mere lip service. Even their participation in government was restricted to the upper crust of the community.

In his cabinet, Mulayam had inducted 13 ministers from the community. But all of them were from the Ashraf section. The Ajlaf and Arzal sections — the backward Muslims constituting the majority in the community — were overlooked.

The strongman of Uttar Pradesh, whose political influence had grown rapidly in the 1990s as he was considered sincere, secular and socialist, has of late become a byword for mendacity, double talk and self-serving recklessness.

In the last few months of his regime, Mulayam fought back hard but could never quite overcome the loss of base among Muslims who were getting restless because of his perceived closeness to the BJP.

Such vehement changes in the political culture of the Samajwadi Party was bound to have a significant bearing on the electoral behaviour of Muslims. The older among them did not have the confidence to do away with the shield against saffron communalism.

The latest shift in a section of the community away from Mulayam shows that the new generation is growing up with the realisation that it can do without the Samajwadi Party’s cover against the BJP.