Prominent Muslim leaders - Qadir Rana, Mursaleen Rana, Liyakat Ali, among others - who wanted to contest the elections now feel "neglected and disowned". A former SP leader Amir Alam, said: "It is not about whether Muslim politicians will get to fight the election in Muzaffarnagar or not, what matters most is how to defeat communal forces."

But there were voices that differed. A young Muslim activist, Javed Abbas, said, "The initiative by SP will avoid polarisation. Akhilesh Yadav has taken the right decision of not giving tickets to Muslims..."SP leader Sudheer Panwar said, "SP never distributes tickets on the basis of religion...Enough tickets have been given to Muslims across UP." RLD's west UP's spokesperson Abhishek Chaudhry said, "Shamli and Muzaffarnagar are considered as one, and RLD has nominated two Muslim candidates in Shamli..." Opposition leader Ziaur Rahman, said, "SP claims it has a soft corner for Muslims, but when it came to electoral representation, not even a single seat was given to Muslims." BSP has announced Muslim candidates in two seats in Muzaffarnagar. AIMIM is also thinking of offering tickets to Muslim politicians.

(With inputs from agencies)