By Aleem Faizee, ummid.com,
Mumbai: The indiscriminate arrests of the Muslim youths after every terrorist attack. The atrocities purportedly committed by the police officials on them in the prison. The killing of Khuwaja Yunus in jail, allegedly by the police officials. The failure of the successive Congress governments to implement the recommendations of Shri Krishna Commission report. The brazen misuse of the Muslim Wakf properties allegedly by the politicians in power. And the attacks on the North Indians. These are the issues that might have been faded away from the media glare and might not have been finding a mention by a plethora of candidates belonging to various political parties contesting the ongoing parliamentary election elsewhere in the country. However at least in the Mumbai North West constituency these are the only issues that will perhaps determine the fate of the candidates when people there will go to the poll on April 30.
‘No party is secular. When it comes to abandon the Muslims, all political parties are same. If today Abu Asim Azmi is getting the support from people it is merely because of his persistent effort to fight for their cause, not Samajwadi Party, says Fayyaz Shaikh, a resident of Jogeshwari, an area dominated by Muslims. The North Indian taxi drivers and vendors too echo the same feeling. ‘We cannot forget those testing moments when the Mumbai roads were converted into a hell for us,’ Shankar, a taxi driver says.
Riding high on the public sentiments, Abu Asim Azmi too is exploiting these issues to his favor. Asked him about the issues on which he is fighting the elections and he comes with a long list of grievances committed against the minorities and recently against the North Indians in Mumbai by successive governments. People have not yet forgotten how they had to ramble from one leader to another when they were under the attacks from almost whole of the government machinery. They were beaten, tortured and subjected to humiliation but no one was there to help them, Abu Asim says to ummid.com adding, ‘People now want to send a leader who will at least raise their issues in the parliament.’
Interestingly, while Abu Asim Azmi brushes aside his own party manifesto saying, in the era of globalization and tough competition only a fool would deny the importance of English language and computers, like his opponents he is not willing to fight his own election on development. ‘It is the security and self respect of the minorities and the weaker section of the society that is at risk in whole of the country. People in my constituency would vote for their protection and dignity. On development, I will not get a single vote’, he says.
Nevertheless there are other people in the constituency too who are not ready to buy his theory. ‘Abu Asim Azmi is known for using the emotional issues to his favour. These issues appeal the electorate also. But when it comes to actually deliver, his record is pathetic,’ Rehana Bastiwala, the BBC Mumbai reporter who resides in the same constituency says while speaking with ummid.com.
Electoral Statistics in the Mumbai North constituency
Of the total 15,93,514 voters, the Mumbai North constituency has 4,76,571 North Indian and 2,49,436 Muslim voters. Owing to the fact that the constituency, newly formed after the delimitation, has a sizeable number of Muslim and North Indian voters, Abu Asim Azmi, the high-profile state president of Samajwadi Party (SP) had staked his claim for the seat. “The statistics in the constituency is clearly in our favour. This is why we were demanding from the Cong-NCP combine to leave this seat for Samajwadi Party (SP). In return we were ready to support them in the remaining 47 constituencies of Maharashtra. But despite our legitimate claim they declined to agree,” says Abu Asim.
In the midst of the negotiation, a large number of Mumbai Ulema too joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) bandwagon and demanded the Congress High Command to declare their support for the Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Abu Asim Azmi. However the Congress leadership did not pay any heed to their persistent demand and barely few days before the nomination date decided to field Gurudas Kamat against him.
The constituency, apart from having nearly 50% Muslim and North Indian combine votes, has a huge 6,05,463 Marathi voters and there already is a tug-of-war between Gajanand Kirtikar of Shiv Sena (SS) and Shalinitai Thackeray of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) for the strong Marathi vote bank. This had resulted in an easy contest for Abu Asim Azmi in the constituency. The emergence of the Congress candidate in the fray however has turned the table against the SP candidate. Now the Congress and the Smajwadi Party (SP) candidates both are blaming each other for eating into their vote bank.
‘SP is hand-in-glove with the Shiv Sena (SS) and is contesting the election to divide the secular votes. Not only in this constituency, they are doing this at other places also,’ screaming the Congress media mangers press releases that are regularly appearing in the press.
SP on the other hand is blaming Congress for the same. ‘The fact is that Congress never allows the emergence of a strong Muslim leadership anywhere in the country. Hence to hamper my chances in the election, they decided to field their candidate in the last moment. They had done this in the past also when I fought the 2004 assembly from Bhiwandi,’ Abu Asim Azmi says.
However apart from the political blame game it is finally the electorates who hold the key. They are currently keeping their cards close to their chests. What is in their minds, will only be known on April 30.