Muslims in Malegaon shed grudge against Congress to take on BJP

MALEGAON: The Congress has never been able to crack Dhule and Malegaon in Maharashtra, which have a large – 30 per cent– Muslim population. They have either voted for the Samajwadi Party or other local candidates, but rarely Congress. Muslims are an angry lot here: there’s hardly any development; the town had been rocked by blasts in 2006 which killed 37 and injured more than 100, but the cops ended up arresting some local Muslims. Perhaps, this explains Pratap Sonawane’s ( BJP) easy victory over Amrish Patel of the Congress in 2009.

But this time things could be different: people here have decided to vote for the Congress, if only to check Narendra Modi’s march to power. With the Gujarat riots fresh in their minds, they want to keep the BJP out at whatever cost. “The BJP manifesto has made our resolve stronger -- we won’t allow our votes to be divided, we will vote for the Congress,” says Dr Mujibur Rehman, a medical practitioner from Malegaon.

He claims that the Muslim community would vote in higher numbers not just in Malegaon or Dhule, but in Maharashtra and elsewhere in the country to keep the BJP at bay. Shafiq Ahmed Abbas, a property dealer, said that Muslims from Malegaon and Dhule will turn up in large numbers on voting day. The Modi issue is so sensitive this time that Muslim voting percentage could even touch 85%, compared to 40-65 per centin the previous elections. “We won’t send a BJP MP from here to Delhi,” he says. Former Malegaon MLA Nihal Ahmed of the Janata Dal, known for his anti-Congress stance, has also come out in open support for the Congress candidate Amrish Patel.

But somewhere in Malegaon, the hurt still lingers. Shafiq Ahmed Ansari, who owns a medical shop in the town and lost his son in the 2006 blasts, still can’t put the past behind him. “There’s an atmosphere created that Muslims are in danger if Modi comes to power, but haven’t we suffered the same fate under Congress?” he asks incredulously. The hurt of 2006 is still raw in Malegaon, and got worse after the Maharashtra ATS booked nine people from the town for triggering the blasts. They were released only last year on bail after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said that a radical Hindu outfit was behind the blasts.

In September 2008, another bomb went off in Malegaon, killing six people and injuring more than 100. The ATS arrested more than 10 members of a Hindu outfit who they claim wanted to take revenge against the minority community. Malegaon and Dhule have a population of around 16 lakh, of which around 4.60 lakh are Muslims. There are around six lakh Marathas, while the rest are Gujaratis , Jains, Vanjari and other OBCs.