Congress loses its Mulayam touch with minorities

It appears to be a telling political lesson from the just-concluded UP elections, with FM Pranab Mukherjee blanking out ‘minority welfare’ from his budget speech after having made it a focal point of his address in the past years.
The minority affairs ministry lost out both in rhetoric and allocation, with barely 10% hike in funds. Observers saw the UP debacle as a cause of the downgrade.Congress ran a high-decibel campaign revolving around Muslim quota in the recent state election. But the Rahul Gandhi-led campaign failed to enthuse minority voters who instead flocked to Samajwadi Party ranks and swelled its tally.
Observers attributed the omission of minority welfare to conclusions drawn from the UP drubbing. Incidentally, the ministry is headed by Salman Khurshid, who drew EC’s ire over remarks on ‘Muslim quota’ and helped the opposition paint the Congress campaign as a poll gimmick.
Congressmen said the campaign pitch polarized the election and the counter aggression from BJP pushed Muslims towards SP.
Budget 2012
Budget News 2012