Minority report

With 10 days left for elections to begin,prominent Muslim outfits have firmed up their poll strategy. Unlike the past....

With 10 days left for elections to begin,prominent Muslim outfits have firmed up their poll strategy. Unlike the past,however,they are wary about supporting any particular party or combination,instead picking and choosing favourable candidates on a seat-to-seat basis. The indication is clear all major secular parties can hope to get a share of the Muslim vote pie.

While this strategy may sound somewhat confused,it is only a reflection of the lack of options available before the Muslim groups,which are disenchanted with all mainstream parties for a variety of reasons. Their grievances against the UPA Government are many,ranging from the harassment of innocent Muslim youths in the name of the fight against terror to the virtual shelving of the Ranganath Mishra committee report on reservation for minorities. But then again,for Muslim groups,the BJP is still the bigger enemy.

A conglomerate of Muslim outfits consisting of the Jamaat-e-Islami-Hind,the All India Milli Council,the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat,Jamiat-e-Ulema-Hind and the Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadees have begun an exercise to identify the candidates they would support in 100-odd Lok Sabha seats,where they believe Muslim votes are a deciding factor.

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Prominent Muslim leaders said the focus would stay on these seats,where these outfits under the banner of the Joint Committee on Muslim Organisations for Empowerment (JCMOE),would appoint local committees to pick the favourable candidates.

We will go by the report of the local committees. The strategy is to defeat the BJP and its allies. Therefore,we will support candidates that are either Independents with secular credentials or those belonging to mainstream secular parties. Of course,the winnability factor would definitely be kept in mind while selecting the candidates, Manzoor Alam of the Milli Council told The Indian Express.

Muslim leaders like Jamaats Mutjaba Farooq point out that,post-delimitation,there are at least 60 seats in the country where 20 per cent of the voters are Muslims,around 28 seats where Muslim population is over 30 per cent,and 14 seats where Muslims are in a majority. The idea is to favour parties that are secular in nature,said Farooq.

However,the outfits are divided on the strategy to be adopted in Uttar Pradesh where the Samajwadi Party has long been a clear favourite over the BSP for Muslims. However,the SPs association with former BJP leader Kalyan Singh has antagonised at least some Muslim outfits,although BSP chief Mayawatis earlier flirtations with the BJP have not been forgotten either.

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On the whole,Muslim outfits say they would still prefer the Congress where there is a direct fight between Congress and the BJP. They add they will choose other secular parties where they have a strong presence,depending upon the candidates and the winnability factor.

In some minority-dominated seats,fringe Muslim outfits like Badruddin Ajmals Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) and Asaduddin Owaisis Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen are also in the fray. In such cases,the outfits would support their candidates. We have no clear-cut favourites this time. We want to ensure that Muslim votes are not divided, Mushawarat president Zafarul Islam Khan said.

Jamaat has already announced that in West Bengal it will support the Left-led coalition. In Kerala,however,it plans to support the LDF Government in all the 20 seats barring Ponnani and Wayanad where it will vote for UDF candidates despite the Left having fielded Muslim candidates.