Samajwadi Party leader Maria Alam, niece of veteran Congress leader and former Union law minister Salman Khurshid, addressing a gathering on April 29 in Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh, urged Muslim voters in India to wage a “vote jihad” against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. In an election already riven by a Hindu-Muslim binary, this statement sparked another row, bringing the Muslim voter once again to the centre stage.