It has not been happy news for the Samajwadi Party on the Muslim vote bank front in recent times. There have been more than 20 cases of communal clashes and riots after its government stormed back to power mostly on the strength of the community’s support. A middle level Muslim police officer died after being attacked by supporters of an MLA close to the party’s leadership not long ago and the government was seen sympathetic to him. BJP leader Varun Gandhi got a clean chit from the court in the communal hate speech case after all witnesses turned hostile mysteriously.