The Aligarh Muslim University Students’ Union (AMUSU) President Faizul Hasan and Secretary Nabeel Usmani in a press conference, on February 9, announced to publicly support the Mayawati led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and appealed to the Muslims of UP to vote for the party.

In 1936, the then students’ union of Aligarh Muslim University welcomed Dr Ambedkar to the campus. Ambedkar had delivered a speech from the union hall building appealing the Dalits and Muslims students to unite, and walk hand-in-hand in the political arena of the nation. President Faizul Hasan said, “BSP is the only party based on Ambedkar’s vision and ideology. It is the only political party that stands with Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims and other backwards classes.”

This is the first time that the office bearers of AMUSU are campaigning for a political party during their tenure. AMUSU Vice-President Nadeem Ansari openly criticized this decision of President and the Secretary. “This is not the tradition of AMU, it never was. The office-bearers of AMUSU have never joined any political party during their tenure. The president and secretary must immediately resign”, said the vice president.

AMUSU President Faizul Hasan, Vice President Nadeem Ansari and Secretary Nabeel Usmani

This decision of the members of AMUSU has led to a split between the union members. Cabinet Asif Idrees, Abdul Wasey and few others are supporting Vice President Nadeem Ansari while others stand with the president and the secretary.

The secretary Nabeel Usmani appealed to the Muslims of Uttar Pradesh to vote for BSP to keep the fascists away. He said, “In this time of ours when certain ideologies are being imposed on the students of which Rohith Vemula and Najeeb are perfect examples, BSP is the need of hour. Samjwadi Party is working on the ideologies of RSS and should be kept away from power.”

Meanwhile, vice president Nadeem Ansari along with a few cabinet members told the reporters that President Faizul Hasan and Secretary Nabeel Usmani simply cannot ruin the image of university. “If they want to support any political party, they should do it on their individual level and not use university’s name. BSP is the party which has records of supporting BJP. We’ll call a general body meeting and discuss this with the students”, said Nadeem.

With this the split only grew larger as President accused Nadeem Ansari of meeting Mulayam Singh, Shivpal Yadav and Azam Khan while supporting a local Samajwadi Party’s candidate in the election.