INSIGHTS

The latest election to Maharashtra Assembly has returned only11 Muslim MLAs. The list of 174 candidates released by the Congress had 12 Muslim names while the NCP's list of 113 candidates had four. Muslims make up 10.6 per cent of population in the state and about 48 constituencies have significant Muslim presence.

Outgoing Maharashtra Assembly also had 11 Muslim MLAs. The 2009 result saw five Muslim candidates coming second, three of those with a margin of less than 10,000 votes.

Muslims in Maharashtra have shown least interest in the current Assembly elections. An analysis of the polling percentage in Muslim majority constituencies by Trends Research & Analysis Centre (TRAC) revealed that the polling percentage was between 23 to 42. In the predominant Muslim constituency of Mumbadevi, the Muslim pockets show polling ranging as low as 19 to 23 per cent. As a result three times sitting MLA Basheer Patel, who contested from Samajwadi Party ticket lost the election to Amin Patel of Congress.

Why this lackadaisical attitude? Muslims in Maharashtra are still angry against Congress as well as the NCP. Unfortunately they don't have any alternative.

Samajwadi Party in Maharashtra is dominated by Muslims but in spite of getting Muslim votes in the past in the local elections, its performance is equally pathetic. No doubt Samajwadi Party's Maharashtra unit chief Abu Asim Azmi has won the Vidhan Sabha elections from two places - Mankhurd in Mumbai and Bhiwandi East in Thane. Also his party has won four seats exclusively on the strength of Muslim votes but that is not because of Abu Asim's charismatic leadership but due to the division of non-Congress votes between BJP – Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) led by Raj Thackeray.

Azmi, a former Rajya Sabha member, has unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai and lost the last Vidhan Sabha elections from Bhiwandi. He is the only politician who has won the elections from two places this time. A vocal leader and a good orator, he has been steering the Samajwadi Party in Mumbai and Maharashtra for the last 10 to 12 years and this time his presence would be felt in the Vidhan Sabha.

During the filing of his nominations – he has declared the maximum assets. His assets declared are to the tune of Rs. 126 crore. He is also the person who has the highest liability with 4.82 crore. Azmi, a resident of Colaba in Mumbai, is also one of the vocal critics of MNS chief Raj Thackeray and has publicly condemned him for the latter's stance against the migrant population, particularly those from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The anger against Congress-NCP is palpable from the result of Malegaon. The terror-struck Malegaon has rebuffed the overtures of the Congress. Mufti Ismail, the Deoband-trained chief imam of the Muslim-dominated textile town's Jama Masjid won the seat by a handsome 17,000 votes, getting the better of Congress's Shaikh Rasheed and five-time MLA and Janata Dal (secular) leader Nihal Ahmed.

This is the first time an imam has won in Maharashtra. The victory is significant as Malegaon has witnessed successive incidents of violence, including the plot hatched by the Abhinav Bharat conspirators.

Malegaon, which has been hit by bomb blasts twice and labelled "communally sensitive" after sectarian violence, witnessed an election beyond politics of hatred. Ismail's strengths are his command over local residents and communication skills. During the 2001 communal riots, it was he who managed to control the angry mob. Even after the 2006 Malegaon serial blasts, he visited the entire city in a police van and appealed for peace. Imam Ismail (46), who contested the election on a Jan Shakti Sawaraj Party, secured 71,157 votes while the Congress candidate got 53,238 votes.
Ismail, who has been leading the namaz at Malegaon's grand mosque, studied Islamic shariah from Darool Uloom Deoband in Uttar Pradesh. "Ismail formed a third front in Malegaon in 2006 and his party captured 28 seats in the 72-member Malegaon Corporation.