Losing confidence in the secular Congress and nationalist BJP, Indian Muslims are giving their support to recently formed regional Muslim parties, as they prepare for the coming House of the People 2014 elections.

“The surge of Regional Political Parties of Muslim reflects a new-found confidence in the minority community in organizing politically with the community’s interests in mind,” a document published by Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) think tank Public Policy Research Centre (PPRC) was cited by The Sunday Standard on December 8.

The document ‘Rise of Regional Muslim Parties’ has been circulated to BJP leaders on this recent emerging  trend to formulate their strategy for the crucial 2014 Lok Sabha (House of the People) elections.

The document details the rise of regional parties like the Peace Party of India (which won four seats in the last Uttar Pradesh 2012 assembly elections), Quami Ekta Dal (won one seat in UP), and the All-India United Democratic Front (AUDF) which won 18 assembly seats in Assam elections cornering 12.57 percent of the votes polled.

“In Tamil Nadu, Manithaneya Makkal Katchi, won two assembly seats in the 2011 assembly elections; Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen won 8 seats in 2009 Andhra Pradesh assembly election and even boasts of an MP,” the document states.

As the stage is set for the 2014 elections, politicians’ eyes were focused on the Muslim minority to see which way the Muslim voters will make the decisive choice.

Muslims, who constitute close to 15 per cent of India’s population, play a vital role in over three dozen general seats.

With significant presence in other constituencies, they can change the electoral mathematics.

The BJP, which has been desperately eyeing the Muslim votes, as the party is preparing a separate vision document for the minorities, is keenly watching the growth of these parties and even making attempts to woo the community.

The Congress has also been working to lure the Muslim minority with welfare policies, to keep BJP, particularly their prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, at bay.

Influential Forces

Being backed by the influential Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Welfare Party of India, launched in April 2011, was also listed in the document among the effective Muslim parties.

The document has also focused on Social Democratic Party of India set up in 2009 that won several municipal seats in Karnataka, Kerala (14 seats), Tamil Nadu (62 seats) local body elections.

Set up by Rashtriya Ulema Council in 2008, the Quami Ekta Dal was described as a party with “huge influence in eastern UP and one of the allies of Third Front along with Peace Party”.

Giving an example of the growing power of these smaller players, the document states the instance of the Jangipur Lok Sabha by-poll in 2012 from where President Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit Mukherjee contested elections.  Abhijit won the seat by merely 2,500 votes.

Two Muslim political parties WPI and SDPI together polled 66,274 votes, thus indicating their influence.

There are some 140 million Muslims in Hindu-majority India and they have long complained of being discriminated against in all walks of life.

Relations between Muslims and the BJP have been strained since the 2002 massacre of Muslims in the state.

More than 2,000 Muslims were hacked and burnt to death in Gujarat in 2002 by Hindu mobs after Hindu pilgrims died in a train fire first blamed on Muslims but which a later inquiry concluded was accidental.

http://www.onislam.net/english/news/asia-pacific/466737-regional-islamic-parties-rise-in-india.html

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