How Muslims Voted In BMC Elections

The real surprise in these results came from Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM.

Of the 29 Muslim candidates who got elected to the 227-strong BMC, the Congress and the AIMIM between them bagged 22.

How did Mumbai's Muslims vote in the municipal elections? Not for the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena combine, for sure.

The BJP didn't field a single Muslim candidate; and not one of the 12 Muslims fielded by Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena won.

Indeed, in four Muslim-majority wards, none of the parties that make up the Mahayuti -- comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party -- fielded any candidate.

Only Ajit Pawar, who fought separately despite being part of the ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, could get two of his 24 Muslim candidates elected. Both belonged to party veteran and former minister Nawab Malik's family, and won from their traditional family stronghold of Kurla.

Uddhav Thackeray's Sena, for whom Muslims voted en masse in both the Lok Sabha and assembly elections, leading to the BJP accusing him of 'Muslim appeasement', fielded 10 Muslims, of whom 3 won. Two of them won from a mixed Hindu-Muslim area where the party already had a Muslim MLA; one of the winners was the MLA's daughter.

Significantly, voters preferred these two Muslims to those fielded by the Congress and Samajwadi Party, parties traditionally supported by Muslims. The third won from a Muslim majority ward.

Why Did AIMIM Win 8 Seats?

However, the real surprise in these results came from Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM. Of the 29 Muslim candidates who got elected to the 227-strong BMC, the Congress and the AIMIM between them bagged 22. The two parties present a contrast: One, a traditional bastion of Muslim votes since Independence; the other, a comparative newcomer that's grown by attacking the Congress.

How does one explain the sudden popularity of the Hyderabad-based AIMIM? How did its tally go up from two seats in 2017, the first time it contested the BMC polls, to 8 this time?

It's not as if its cadre worked hard to spread its presence. Indeed, except one, its winners are all new to politics. Nor does it have any leadership in Mumbai to speak of, with three of its Mumbai presidents having resigned since 2014, when the party opened its account in Mumbai.

The answer lies in the specific situation prevailing in Govandi, the Muslim-majority slum in north east Mumbai from where the party won seven of its eight seats. The eighth was won from a nearby constituency. Interestingly, two of the winners were non-Muslims.

Anti-incumbency against the four-term MLA, Samajwadi Party state President Abu Asim Azmi and his corporators; the wilful retreat by the Congress from its former bastion; and the targeting of Govandi as a 'den of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis' by BJP leaders such as Kirit Somaiya (who got the police to remove loudspeakers from the mosques in this predominantly Muslim area) and state Minister Nitesh Rane (who threatened to demolish its mosques), with no party doing anything to restrain them, account for this spectacular result.

An inkling of the AIMIM's potential was seen in the 2024 assembly election, when for the first time, Azmi faced a real challenge by a local activist backed by a new generation of educated Muslims who were fed up of living in a ward with the lowest human development indices. With nothing to lose, the AIMIM gave Ateeq Khan a ticket.

Khan came second, defeating veteran NCP leader Nawab Malik, who had hoped to dent Azmi's dominance.

Azmi won the assembly seat with a margin of 12,753 votes, helped by the backing of the INDIA alliance, which included his bete noir, Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena.

Sensing the mood of the voters, Asaduddin Owaisi began his BMC campaign from Govandi. His brother Akbaruddin too held a rally here.

"We thought it better to fight limited seats but with full force. We found a good cadre here, who could connect with the people and talk about local issues," said J Qureshi, a long-time supporter.

Will this full force of eight corporators work to improve conditions in Govandi?

"The AIMIM has no leader who can force the newly elected corporators to work," said Faiyaz Shaikh of the Govandi Citizens Welfare Forum. "But they were supported by the younger generation, so it's the youth who will have to force them to do so."

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Muslims Disappointed With Congress

The Congress which fought in alliance with Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), once again accounted for the maximum Muslim corporators: 14. It had fielded 37. Three of these belonged to one family, that of Aslam Shaikh, four-term MLA from the Muslim-majority suburb of Malwani, north west Mumbai, and guardian minister of Mumbai under the MVA government.

Like Govandi, Malwani too has been maligned as a 'den of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis' by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and builder-BJP minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha.

At least one seat was won by the Congress thanks to Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh, who, ignored in seat distribution by party president Abu Asim Azmi, fielded his candidates in other parties. His personal secretary Waqar Khan fought on a Congress ticket and won.

Many of the others too were family members of established Congress MLAs and corporators.

One such old hand, Ashraf Azmi, defeated heavyweight two-term corporator Kaptan Malik, brother of ex-minister Nawab Malik of the NCP (Ajit Pawar).

Muslims were deeply disappointed with the no-show by Congress heavyweights in the campaign. Rajya Sabha MP Imran Pratapgarhi was the only one who came to the city, but all he did was hold a roadshow along with cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin.

Nor did it provide much help to its candidates. First-time candidates such as social worker Reshma Momin, who had a formidable opponent in Bushra Malik, Kaptan Malik's daughter-in-law, were left to fend for themselves, with the party providing neither funds nor campaigners.

In Govandi, its former bastion which the party had deliberately left all these years to Abu Asim Azmi, candidates such as party spokesperson Nizamuddin Rayeen, had to put together a team through their own contacts.

This election saw the near wipe-out of the party that has all along been known as Mumbai's Muslim party. The Samajwadi Party managed to win just two seats.

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'This Is Congress' Worst Showing'

In the 2017 BMC elections too, 27 Muslims had got elected. Then, as now, the BJP-and the undivided Sena were in power in the state. This time however, the BJP is far more aggressive in its Hindutva rhetoric, which was seen in this election campaign too.

Fears of a 'Muslim takeover of Mumbai' were peddled by BJP leaders, specifically referring to Muslim-dominated slum settlements such as Govandi and Malwani.

Will the 27 corporators be able to counter this aggression?

"Had the Congress fought along with the Uddhav Sena-MNS-Sharad Pawar NCP alliance, the resistance to the BJP would have been stronger," said a long-time political observer.

"The Congress didn't ally with Uddhav Thackeray because of his alliance with Raj Thackeray. But despite that, how many votes of North Indians did they get?" scoffed Aakif Dafedar, who campaigned for Prakash Ambedkar's VBA. After the polling was over, Ambedkar hit out at the Congress for its mild campaign against the BJP.

Interestingly, many Muslims said they voted for the Uddhav Sena-MNS combine despite Raj Thackeray's anti-Muslim rhetoric in the recent past. "The bigger enemy needs to be kept out first; the Congress should have understood that," said 1992-1993 riot victim Farooq Mapkar, now an activist.

"With just 24 seats, this is the Congress' worst showing," said Mansur Darvesh, RTI activist. "Mumbai President MLA Varsha Gaekwad is to be blamed for her arbitrary distribution of tickets; she must resign."

What residents of Govandi and Malwani fear most is that with the BJP in control of the BMC, they will be targeted for 'redevelopment' the way Dharavi has been, and ousted from their homes. Will their corporators be able to withstand that plan?

Voters from here hope so. "The Congress' Aslam Shaikh and his family do no work, but at least they are a force against the BJP," said Ali, a social worker in Malwani.

Perhaps the most telling comment on the situation of the community came from S Shaikh, a community activist. "Muslim corporators don't work for the community or even for their areas. If these 27 corporators can stand up and counter the BJP's continuous targeting of Muslims, they'd have done enough."

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff