How Syed Ahmed Bukhari’s last minute support for AAP adds religious tone to Delhi elections 2015

NEW DELHI: The jury is out on if Syed Ahmed Bukhari’s lastminute intervention pledging support for AAP – something that AAP rejected summarily – will have any impact on Delhi polls, but the issue brought back religion to focus in a poll that was supposed to be only about class.

A polarising figure in Delhi politics for decades, Bukhari doesn’t enjoy any major clout among Delhi’s Muslims, according to many clerics ET spoke to. But the abrupt call to vote for AAP had the BJP accusing the Arvind Kejriwal-led outfit of playing “politics of religion”.

Kejriwal, in an interview with ET, said AAP will never take the support of Bukhari, adding that it was all part of a co-ordinated plan of BJP to polarize the electorate at last minute.

In last Delhi assembly elections, Imam Bukhari was against AAP and had appealed people to vote for Congress. However, his younger brother, Yaahya Bukhari, had joined AAP one and a half years back and has been a member since.

On Thursday, another religious sect Dera Sacha Sauda pledged support to the BJP urging all its 12 lakh followers in the capital to vote for the party

AAP leader Ilyas Azmi said nobody from the party had asked for support from the Imam. “We don’t need his support. No one asked him for support or even advice

Imam Bukhari’s appeal however landed him much criticism from within the Muslim community. Maulana Ghulam Qadir, secretary, All India Sunni Ulema Muslim Federation said the timing and nature of the Imam’s statements were not in good taste.

“First of all not all Muslims in New Delhi are followers of the Imam, so he can’t speak on behalf of all Muslims. Secondly, with an appeal like that he has made the Delhi election a Hindu versus Muslim war now which it is not. Muslims have the good sense to choose what is good for them and for the country,” said Qadir

The imam is not a favourite even among Muslim parties seen to be radical. All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi said the Imamw has been indulged in such “arrogant acts” for a while now and has no credibility even in the Muslim society.