By Mohd Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net,
Jaipur: Rajasthan’s capital Jaipur is witnessing an interesting electoral combat with its 17% Muslim population asserting to get back its representation in the assembly. For almost a decade there has been no Muslim representative elected from Jaipur but this time around two Congress candidates wants to break this long stall.
Congress party which has 10 sitting Muslim MLAs in Rajasthan has allotted 16 tickets to Muslim candidates, out of which 2 are from Jaipur city. One is a debutant and other is veteran politician.
On one end of Jaipur at Adarsh Nagar three times MLA Mahir Azad knows how to dance to tune in different circumstances. At a meeting called in Govindpura, a purely Hindu dominated area Mahir Azad invokes Sanskrit slokas to tell the crowd comprising of different castes that every single vote is important to him.
At Govindpura bastion of sitting BJP MLA of Adarsh Nagar Ashok Parnami, Mahir Azad targets BJP as the party of dividing people on the basis of religion. The original venue of the meeting was Hanuman Mandir but at the last minute it was changed as local BJP workers protested, even slangs were made in the locality that if Mahir Azad wins Adarsh Nagar he will transform Govindpur into Eidgah Colony (a Muslim dominated locality in Adarsh Nagar).
Once Mahir Azad reaches Eidgah colony, his tone and style started resembling that of a Muslim neta ready to sacrifice anything and everything for the community. At Adarsh Nagar Muslim turnout percentage is the deciding factor in which way victory winds will flow and Mahir Azad as a skilled politician misses no chance to acknowledge it.
Mahir Azad, who is the current state minorities’ commission chairman has a long stint in politics with different parties. He first became MLA in 1990 from Jhunjhunu on Janta Dal ticket. After the demise of Janta Dal he shifted to BSP and won Nagar seat in 1998. Later he joined Congress and won Nagar in 2003.
In 2008, delimitation process Nagar got reserved for Gujjar community and Mahir Azad was shifted to Adarsh Nagar, a newly formed seat in Jaipur with 40% Muslim votes. He contested against Ashok Parnami of BJP but lost with just 1,700 votes.
Sudden change in the constituency, Mahir Azad claim was the one reason for his defeat and another he says, was the Mumbai bomb blasts. “Just two days before the state election in 2008, blasts ripped Mumbai. It was propagated through media that Muslims are behind. It resulted in sudden communal polarization in Urban Rajasthan. That’s the reason why BJP won in whole Urban Rajasthan including Adarsh Nagar,” Azad alleges.
As State Minorities Commission Chairman Mahir Azad said he travelled across whole Rajasthan and is now well verse on Muslim issues. Praising his own style of politics among his Muslim supporters he said that no Muslim MLA in Rajasthan could give him lead in raising community issues in the Assembly.
“I don’t know about other Muslim MLA’s but Mahir Azad has always raised Muslim issues in the assembly,” he says to the claps of his supporters. Then he continues, “Ek Sacha Musalman (A true Muslim) will fear only Allah not his party,” which resulted in more applause.
Amin Kagzi, son of senior Congress leader and state Haj committee chairman Salim Kagzi, on the other end, is fielded by the party to contest from Kishanpole constituency which has 25% Muslim votes. Kagzi is contesting against Mohan Lal Gupta, senior BJP leader who is representing Kishanpole for past 10 years.
“BJP is not that strong, I am not scared of any candidate”, says young Amin Kagzi claiming anti-incumbency factor is in his favour in Kishanpole. According to Mr. Kagzi, Mohan Lal Gupta has done no development work in the constituency and through his progressive vision he wants to attract local votes.
Cautious that only Muslim votes cannot give him a lead, Amin Kagzi often evokes that he will work for the development of all the communities. But he is ever ready to woo the traditional vote bank of Congress by reminding them that, “Only because of Congress Muslims are safe in this country”, and apart from security Mr. Kagzi claims that state Congress Govt. of Ashok Gehlot did lot of favor to Muslims through Madrasa Aadhunik Karan Yojna, fees reimbursement and 200 crore minorities welfare budget.
Both the Congress Muslim contestants from Jaipur are making consolidation of Muslim vote bank as their corner stone for victory. Their strategy is to propagate that Congress provided security to Muslims. When critics point to 40 riots in Congress regime both were quick to point out prosecution of the guilty. The Ashok Gehlot Government schemes for Muslims are also widely promoted in the campaign; even selection of two Muslims youths from state to IAS is also been given credit to Congress government.
But the biggest challenge both the contestant faces are the bogus Muslim contestants fielded against them. Mahir Azad last time faced dozens of Muslim candidates dividing his community votes heavily; this time around in total 16 Muslim contestants are against him. In Kishanpole Amin Kagzi is also facing same number of Muslim contestants.
Both candidates allege that it is a conspiracy of their rivals in BJP to divide Muslim votes. In the same way both believe that this time around it will not work, “Muslims have got clever now. They will not get into this tarp of BJP anymore” says Kagzi.
Mahir Azad tells with enthusiastic hope “Inshallah I will get all the Muslim votes and will give the community its due.”