In western Uttar Pradesh, where it performed poorly in the last election, the Bahujan Samaj Party is once again banking on Muslim candidates. Out of the 109 candidates declared by the BSP for the first two phases of the election in west UP, 40 are Muslim, making it 36.7 %.
While Muslims are roughly one-fifth of the state’s population, in western UP they are much higher often touching and going beyond 35-40 % in some districts.
