Patna: Bhartiya Janata Party’s (BJP) lone Muslim candidate from Bihar Shahnawaz Hussain faces really hard times in this parliamentary election with the Narendra Modi factor hugely polarising the minority votes against his party.

Hussain, also the party’s prominent Muslim face and sitting party parliamentarian, is contesting from communally-sensitive eastern Bihar’s Bhagalpur seat which has significant Muslim population. He is pitted against Janata Dal (United) candidate Abu Kaisar and Rashtriya Janata Dal nominee Bulo Mandal but the minority class people are said to be rooting for the RJD candidate.

In the last 2009 Lok Sabha polls, he had an easy win from this seat but this time, he looks like swimming against the tide with the Modi factor sharply polarising the votes of his fellow community. Hussain who was the youngest minister in the previous Atal Behari Vajpayee government is now said to be apprehensive of the fact that he may be ditched by his own community owing to the Modi factor.

The general mood in the minority community is that they will be strongly voting against the BJP to stop Modi coming to power. The level of the bitterness prevailing between the two — Modi and the Muslims — is underlined from the fact that very recently a Muslim candidate Akhtarul Iman fielded by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) from minority-dominated Kishanganj seat pulled back from the contest in favour of Congress nominee Asrarul Haque. The logic given by him was that his presence in the fray would have split the Muslim votes which could mean benefitting the BJP candidate Dilip Jaisawal. The development is enough to indicate how firm is the polarisation in Muslim votes over Modi.

“Our choice would be the ‘best’ person who can defeat the BJP. We are not comfortable [with the BJP],” Izhar Ahmad of Bhagalpur said. Another villager Akhratul Hussain says in normal situation, he would have voted for the JD-U which launched many welfare works for the minority class people but this time with Modi in the scene, he had the compulsion to vote against the BJP candidate although he came from his fellow community. “It’s our compulsion this time that we are forced to think otherwise. We apologise,” adds Hussain.

In fact, the Modi factor has sharply polarised Muslim votes in the whole border region with seven Lok Sabha seats which go to poll in the third phase. All these seats, such as Kishenganj, Katihar, Araria, Purnia, Supaul, Bhagalpur and Banka have sizeable population of Muslims. They constitute some 70 per cent of the total population in Kishenganj, 42 per cent in Katihar, 41 per cent in Araria, 37 per cent in Purnia, 20 per cent in Bhagalpur, 16 per cent in Supaul and around 13 per cent in Banka. The sharp polarisation in their votes is, thus, bound to cause worries for the BJP and that is reflecting in the statements coming from the BJP leaders.

A senior BJP leader Giriraj Singh has kicked up a major controversy by repeatedly saying those opposed to Narendra Modi should go to Pakistan. “Those who want to stop Narendra Modi [from becoming prime minister] are looking towards Pakistan. In the coming days they will only have place in Pakistan,” Singh has gone on telling election rallies, evoking sharp protests from the rival parties. Singh is seen as a staunch supporter of Modi. However, the BJP has disapproved of this statement saying that is not the official stand of the party.

Similarly, the BJP’s former national chief Nitin Gadkari too triggered a major controversy when he said casteism was embedded in the DNA of Bihar. “Casteism is in the DNA of Bihar that is why more talks of casteism in the state,” Gadkari told a press conference in Patna on Saturday.

The twin statements have evoked sharp protests from rival parties who see in them the increasing frustration in the BJP over not getting the desired support from the masses.