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Muslims in Maharashtra did not come out in droves this year as they had in 1999 to vote out the Sena-BJP.

The latest Assembly elections in Maharastra was preceded by a slew of Muslim organisations issuing advice to the Muslim voters. The result revealed that Muslim voters rejected their suggestion and voted intelligently irrespective of the dictates by these organisations.

Ulema Council, Jamaat-e Islami, Milli Council and other groups’ guidance was rejected by the Muslim voters of Maharastra. Jamaat-e Islami and Ulema Council had released the list of candidates deserving Muslim community votes.

How did the Muslim voter react to this advice? The most celebrated candidate was, Samajwadi Party, Rajya Sabha member and Maharashtra unit president, Abu Asim Azmi. Ulema council, Jamaat-e Islami, Milli council and other groups endorsed his candidature and openly declared their support, which got wide publicity in the media.

But Muslim voters had different ideas and they refused to support Abu Asim Azmi.The feelings against Abu Asim Azmi were so strong that many Muslims voted for the Independent candidate, Abdul Rashid Tahir Momin, knowing that in the process, the Shiv Sena candidate will definitely win. Momin procured 24,000 votes. Hence Shiv Sena candidate, Yogesh Patil, bagged 1.16 lakh votes as against 74,000 polled by Abu Asim Azmi.

Not taking the humiliating defeat gracefully, Abu Asim Azmi resigned as the S P Maharastra, president and blamed the community for his defeat. “Voters belonging to my own community cheated me”, he said, addressing the press. “ The Muslim community did not vote for the party in the assembly elections even after it stood for their cause”.

Muslims in Maharashtra did not come out in droves as they had in 1999 to vote out the Sena-BJP. Many Muslim areas of Mumbai saw poor turn-out. The poor turn-out was the latest indication of the despondency with which Muslims in Maharashtra regard the five years of rule by a ‘secular’ government.

Azmi’s loss this time from Bhiwandi, more than 50 km away from his domain in south Mumbai, expose his claim of being the messiah of Mumbai’s Muslims. Another high profile candidate sponsored by all the Muslim organisations was Maulana Athur Ali who fought elections on the S P ticket from pre-dominant Trombay constituency. Muslims rejected him as he got just three percent of votes.

The SP candidate from Parbhani, Rauf Lala who was also supported by the Muslim organisations got just 1728 votes and stood seventh.

Even in Muslim pockets like Umerkhadi, Nagpada, Bandra, Kurla, Nehru Nagar, the seats have been cornered by the Congress-NCP combine, with S P candidates losing their deposits. Even in constituencies like Nashik, Jalgaon, Aurangabad, Malegaon and some constituencies in Konkan where the Muslim population was the deciding factor, the SP failed to make any dent. Its candidates were placed between 5-7th positions.