The appointment of Danish Azad Ansari as the Yogi Adityanath government's lone Muslim Minister has aroused mixed feelings within the Pasmanda or backward sections of the community in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, as an event that needs to be addressed in the community's own larger struggle for political representation. The BJP had not fielded a single Muslim candidate in the Assembly polls, but its ally, the Apna Dal (Sonelal), fielded Haider Ali Khan from Swar, who lost.
Mr. Ansari, 34, will have to be elected to the Legislative Council within six months to keep his Ministry. A resident of Ballia and associated with the RSS youth wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, since 2011, he has described his appointment as a signal that the Muslim community was also warming up to the BJP.
However, former Rajya Sabha member and head of the All India Pasmanda Mahaz Ali Anwar, one of the first to raise issues related to non-Ashraf Muslim community, has said the community should be careful of not playing a part in the "communal politics of any party, be it the Congress, Samajwadi Party, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the BJP."
