Significantly enough, all major political parties are fighting to grab maximum number of Lok Sabha seats out of total 80 from UP.

While on one hand, BJP and its PM candidate Narendra Modi are working hard to get 40 plus seats from, on the other, Congress and its two regional parties BSP and SP, supporting UPA government from outside, are also in serious race to garner good number of seats.

The Muslim community with its 17 per cent share in the population and votes play very important role in deciding the fate of candidates in good number of seats with their effective presence in almost every constituency.

Congress, Samajwadi Party and BSP are fighting to grab maximum share of Muslim population and its crucial votes.

Importantly, during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP could not well and got only 10 seats, BSP 20, Congress 21 and Samajwadi Party 23 seats.

Now in order to prevent split in the crucial Muslim votes, especially after mishandling of Muzaffarnagar communal riots by Akhilesh Yadav government, Samajwadi Party is desperately making attempts to show to the confused public as if it was the only party which was fighting BJP.

To this effect, Mulayam Singh Yadav has launched an all-out attack on Narendra Modi and BJP in series of public meeting held recently. They have been blaming Narendra Modi for playing communal politics and posed certain questions to him in the Gonda rally.

Samajwadi Party national president Mulayam Singh Yadav threw an open challenge to Narendra Modi for a one-on-one debate on development in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. Addressing a large crowd at SP's Desh Bachao Desh Banao rally in Gonda, Mulayam accused Modi of lying on development in Gujarat.

Referring throughout to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat chief minister as 'Modi Sahib' and 'Modi Ji', Mulayam questioned the forced acquisition of land belonging to Sikh farmers in Gujarat. 'Modi ji asks me what SP has done for farmers. We have waived off farmer loans up to Rs 50,000. We have passed a law that the agricultural land of the farmers cannot be sold off for any purpose, not even to recover loans. What have you done Modi Sahib? Sikh farmers are being forced by the Gujarat government to give up their agricultural land,' Mulayam said.

'Modi Sahib is talking about development in Gujarat which has a total population of 6 crore. UP has population of over 20 crore, of which 12 crore are well off. Even if we presume that the entire population in Gujarat is living a good life, they would still be only half the people who are equally well off in UP,' Mulayam said, adding: 'We are committed to transform lives of the remaining as well.'

'Modi ji batayen aapne Gujarat ke liye kya kya? Kuch nahin kiya Gujarat mein! Kya Gujarat mein padhaai muft hai? Kya wahan chikitsa muft hai? Kya ghareebon ko padhai aur berozgaaron ko koi madad milti hai aapki sarkar se?' (Modi ji tell us what have you done for Gujarat. You have done nothing for Gujarat. Is education free in Gujarat? Is medical aid free for the people? Are you giving scholarships to poor for education or helping unemployed youth in any way?) Mulayam questioned.

Mulayam also defended his party government efforts to control Muzaffarnagar communal riots and relief measures and launched attack on Modi for failure of his government to protect Muslims in Gujarat.

Since there was no reply from Modi or his party Mulayam Singh Yadav in his recent press conference in Lucknow said that he was still waiting for reply from Modi or his party for his open challenge for debate.

BJP is deliberately trying to avoid any debate with SP on communal agenda to prevent any polarisation of Muslim for single party. Modi and his party are working on proper split in crucial Muslim votes that is why they are being selective in making attack on political rivals. In some places Narendra Modi and his close lieutenant attacked Congress and Rahul in other places they attacked BSP and it supremo Mayawati and in western UP they took on RLD leader Ajit Singh.

Recently Amit Shah launched attack on Akhilesh Yadav in Hardoi but that was restricted to development issues. Shah blamed Akhilesh Yadav government for lack of infrastructure, poor power supply and deterioration in law and order situation.

The political experts feel that Mulayam’s desperation to prevent split in Muslim votes may not succeed this time as minorities were quite upset with Akhilesh Yadav government for mishandling Muzaffarnagar riots and politics thereafter. (IPA Service)