Lok Sabha polls 2014: Vote for Congress, TMC, RJD, says Shahi Imam of Delhi Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari

NEW DELHI: Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, on Friday endorsed Congress for what he termed as its commitment to secularism and provided a kind of an index of parties sympathetic to the Muslim community, surprisingly leaving out the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party from the list.

“I'm declaring support to Congress, expecting that it will fulfill its promises,” Bukhari said. “Muslims should support the Trinamool Congress in Bengal. Trinamool’s role will be very important in the formation of the government in Delhi. Mamata Banerjee will never be a part of NDA. Keeping this in mind, we support the Trinamool Congress,” he added. He belatedly added Lalu Prasad-led RJD to the list of parties who he felt the Muslim community should support in order to defeat Narendra Modi and BJP.

Bukhari and his predecessor have been known for declaring support to different political parties during elections, although they don’t seem to have influence on the Muslim community’s voting preferences, as seen often from poll outcome even in the Imam’s assembly segment of Matia Mahal.

Bukhari’s endorsement comes three days after he held a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, where she appealed to prevent splintering of secular votes.

More surprising than Bukhari’s endorsement of Congress was his attack on the Samajwadi Party, which still has his son-in-law Umar Ali Khan as a member of the party.

“During UP election we had promised to support Mulayam Singh but during the Muzaffarnagar riots, these political parties supported those forces which triggered the riots. The court has said riots happened due to lapses of the UP government. SP has failed to protect Muslims,” he said.

Despite the fact that relations between SP and the Imam have not been cordial, SP leaders hesitated to comment. SP leader Azam Khan said the Imam of Jama Masjid is in a very responsible position and for him to make an appeal in support of Congress in such a crucial election, where fascist forces are conspiring to take over the country, is not right.

He should realize that in UP, Congress is an extremely weak force and his appeal in their favor would only confuse the Muslims. I would ask the Imam to reconsider his appeal and. SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said that he was “mystified by the Imam’s comments.