There are 24-25 such seats where Muslim votes are likely to be divided as 4-5 Muslim candidates are given tickets by different parties.
Waquar Hasan | Clarion India
NEW DELHI – Concerns are rising about the division of the Muslim votes in the assembly constituencies with a sizable Muslim population in Maharashtra as various parties are fielding Muslim candidates there for the upcoming assembly elections.
The Maha Vikas Agdi (MVA) decided to field 11 Muslim candidates, Ajit Pawar’s NCP four candidates, 11 Muslims are contesting from the All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the names of a dozen candidates were announced by the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA). There are also little-known parties and alliances which are fielding Muslims candidates.
According to the political analysts and activists from the community whom Clarion India spoke to, there are 24-25 such seats where Muslim votes are likely to be divided as 4-5 Muslim candidates were fielded by the different parties.
“In Maharashtra, there are 9 such seats where Muslims account for around or more than 40 per cent of total population. There are 15 such seats where Muslims make up around 30 per cent of the population. There are 38 seats where Muslims are between 10-20 per cent of the population. Muslim votes are in the decisive position on these seats,” said Abdul Mujib, who is the coordinator of Maharashtra Democratic Forum (MDF), while talking to Clarion India.
As per data available, Malegaon Central (78.4%), Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar (53%), Bhiwandi East (51%), Mumba Devi (50.9%), Bhiwandi West (49.5%), Amravati (46.5%), Mumbra Kalwa (43.7%), Akola West (41.6%), Byculla (41.5%), Aurangabad Central (38.5%), Aurangabad West (37.5%), Versova (33.5%), Dharavi (33.4%), Vandre East (33.1%) and Kurla (30.7%) are the assembly constituencies which have significant share of Muslim voters.
In Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar, two Muslim heavyweights Samajwadi Party’s Abu Asim Azmi and Nawab Malik of Ajit Pawar NCP are contesting against each other. Similarly, Sana Malik, daughter of Nawab Malik, is contesting against Sharad Pawar’s NCP candidate Fahad Ahmed, husband of Swara Bhashkar, from Versova.
There are also other seats where the chances of vote division are significant. According to the analysts, there are two seats of Aurangabad, Akola, Nanded, Anushaktinagar, Dhulia and others where the chances of vote division exist.
Amir Idris, a community leader who had contested 2019 assembly election on the ticket of Vanchit Bahujan Agadhi (VBA), downplayed the concerns of the vote division observing that Muslims will unitedly vote for a strong candidate.
“There are not much concerns about the vote division. Muslims will vote for a particular candidate in a one-sided manner. For example, if Muslims decided to vote for AIMIM candidate in a particular constituency, they will cast their votes to him or her unitedly. There can be issues on a few seats. But there is prevailing situation that if Muslims decided to vote for the one candidate, majority of them will vote for him only,” said Idris.
However, Abdul Mujib sees likelihood of vote division of Muslims benefitting the Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance Mahayuti.
“There will be division of votes where four-five Muslim candidates are contesting. It will harm in a big way. However, we are making efforts to minimise this division. We are holding meetings with Ulama-i-Ikram (religious scholars) and dignitaries to reach a consensus candidate. Later, voters will be informed about those candidates. In this way, we can minimise the vote division,” said Mujib.
Idris and Mujib both blamed the secular alliance MVA responsible for the division of the Muslim votes due to the lack of Muslim representation in the alliance. They are of the view that the MVA secured 31 seats out of 40 in the recent Lok Sabha elections because of Muslim votes even though the alliance had not fielded any Muslim candidate.However, the community leaders were disappointed this time also with the lack of Muslim representation.
Mujib sees the lack of Muslim representation in the MVA as the main reason that Muslim voters look for the AIMIM, VBA and other parties.
