The fledgling 34-month-old Peace Party of India (PPI) is thinking big. Last week, its founder-president Dr Mohammad Ayub announced that his party would contest 350 of 403 Assembly seats in 2012. He also set his own terms for forming alliances with other parties: end corruption, fight communalism, implement the Ranganath Mishra Commission’s recommendations and fight for social justice for uplift of Muslims, Dalits, Extremely Backward Castes (EBC) and backwards among forward castes. “For us even the BJP is not untouchable provided it drops its communal agenda,” Ayub told INDIA TODAY.
A surgeon in remote Barhalganj, 50 km from Gorakhpur, Ayub has been making calculated political moves since he formed the PPI in February 2008. His electoral plans are ambitious. First he created a social coalition of Muslims, Dalits, ebcs and economically backwards among forward castes. Then, he allied with Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), Indian Justice Party led by Udit Raj, Momin Conference, Bhartiya Samaj Party, Janvadi Party and National Lok Hind Party. The PPI’s coming second in the November 20 Lakhimpur Sadar bypoll boosted its morale as it pushed the Congress to fourth position. In the June 2009 Dumariaganj Assembly bypoll that was won by the BSP, the PPI came in third. Ayub’s experiment with seeding Brahmin candidates in Domariyaganj and Lakhimpur worked, as a majority of Muslims voted for non-Muslim candidates. When the PPI made its electoral debut in the 2009 General Elections, it came sixth among 124 national and regional parties going by the percentage of votes. It had contested 21 of the 80 seats from Uttar Pradesh.
BJP Spokesperson H.N. Dixit says that Ayub’s strategy is a
via Uttar Pradesh: The party’s on : NATION: News India Today.