Malegaon May Chart A New Course For Muslim Politics

Whichever combination finally emerges, Malegaon could set a record for being a town run neither by Maharashtra's ruling Mahayuti nor by the Opposition MVA, but by a combination of two or three Muslim parties.

Malegaon, the Muslim-majority city associated with bomb blasts and powerlooms, presents a unique political picture after the recently held municipal elections there.

Its 25-year-old municipal corporation might become the only municipal body in Maharashtra run completely by Muslims belonging to Muslim parties.

The year-old I.S.L.A.M. party, an acronym for Indian Secular Largest Assembly of Maharashtra, has emerged as the largest single party in the corporation with 35 seats. Its electoral ally, the Samajwadi Party, won 5.

The corporation has 84 seats, 62 of them in Muslim dominated areas, and 22 in Hindu dominated areas.

The Masum river divides the two sides.

The Congress, which won 3 seats, has already declared its support to the winning coalition (named Malegaon Secular Front), making it easy for an ISLAM party mayor to be elected.

However, the Front might also get the support of the AIMIM, which won 21 seats.

Whichever combination finally emerges, Malegaon could set a record for being a town run neither by Maharashtra's ruling Mahayuti, nor by the opposition MVA, but by a combination of two or three Muslim parties. (While the Congress cannot be called a Muslim party, the Samajwadi Party is, in Maharashtra, essentially a party of Muslims.)

In the past, though Muslims have formed a majority of the city's corporators, political tie ups have resulted in Hindus being elected mayors and standing committee heads.

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A test of Muslim political power

The prospect of a 'Muslim corporation' should be exhilarating at a time when everyday, we read about the country's largest minority being targeted by Hindutva vigilantes and/or the administration in BJP-run states.

The Malegaon Municipal Corporation could set an example for the country of Muslim political representation, which leaders such as Asaduddin Owaisi project as the community's ultimate goal. That would counter the demonisation of the community by the ruling establishment.

Administering the civic body could be seen as a challenge worth taking up for corporators who fought in the name of the city's Muslims, who make up 79% of the population.

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When Asif Founded The ISLAM Party

Unfortunately, not many in Malegaon believe that can happen.

On the contrary, they fear a 'Muslim corporation' might strengthen the BJP's propaganda that when Muslims are a majority, they act as a united block and Hindus should do so too.

Already, after the Congress' Shobha Bachhav defeated the sitting BJP MP in the Lok Sabha elections, Devendra Fadnavis had accused Malegaon's Muslims of 'vote jihad'.

"None of these parties has the intellectual capacity to consider running the corporation as a challenge," pointed out Professor Salim Pinjari, who's spent his life in Malegaon.

"Many of those who won got tickets because of their family connections," he explains."They may be newcomers, but their elders were all well-known politicians from established parties such as the Congress and NCP, and not particularly distinguished by their work."

Asif Shaikh, founder of the ISLAM party, is himself the son of Shaikh Rasheed, a veteran Congressman who was twice Congress MLA. Rasheed is known for having worked for Malegaon.

Asif was also a Congress MLA from 2014-2019. But, finding little scope to advance given the clout of the party's senior Muslim leaders, he and his father left to join the NCP in 2022.

When the NCP split in 2023, Asif founded the ISLAM party just before the 2024 assembly polls.

Interestingly, as soon as the party was formed, many prominent Muslims from Malegaon requested him to change the name, saying he could not use religion for political purposes, else nothing would distinguish him from the BJP.

However, the name stayed and Asif fought the 2024 assembly elections under the party banner, losing to the AIMIM's sitting MLA Mufti Ismael by just 162 votes.

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Formation Of Teesra Mahaz After The Blasts

But even before the ISLAM party made news, Malegaon had been bad-mouthed for having elected a religious figure as its MLA.

After the 2006 bomb blasts in Malegaon that killed 45 Muslims, and for which 11 Muslims from the city were arrested, Mufti Ismael of the Jamiat Ulema formed a political formation called the Teesra Mahaz to fight for justice for both the blast victims as well as those arrested for them. He won the 2007 corporation elections on this issue under the banner of his Teesri Mahaz.

The Mufti is now an AIMIM MLA, in his third term.

Last August, Hindutva leaders and activists accused of having orchestrated both the 2006 and 2008 Malegaon blasts were given the benefit of the doubt and acquitted by a special NIA court. The state hasn't appealed against this judgment.

Yet, there was not a single protest against the judgment from any political party, including the Mufti's AIMIM, said Professor Pinjari.

These acquittals didn't even become an issue in these corporation elections, added Aleem Faizee, editor, umeed.com, a Malegaon-based news web site.

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Malegaon Civic Issues Of No Concern To Anyone

While the Mufti's first election as MLA in 2009 was because he championed the cause of the blast victims and accused, his two subsequent victories in 2019 and 2024, says Aleem Faizee, can be ascribed to two reasons: His religious standing as a mufti, and the hold Asaduddin Owaisi has in Malegaon.

Indeed, campaigning for the 2024 assembly elections, the Hyderabad-based Owaisi requested voters to vote for him, not for the non-performing Mufti.

This time, says Professor Pinjari, voters were really angry with the Mufti.

"They saw the contrast between the Hindu side of the town and the Muslim side," recounts Professor Pinjari."Work on laying the underground drainage system and then repairing roads dug up for that, started at the same time on both sides. But Dada Bhuse, the Shiv Sena MLA who represents the Hindus on that side, completed the work well in time. On our side, the roads are so bad that some voting booths became almost inaccessible."

What's worse, says freelance journalist and lawyer Mubasshir Mushtaq, Malegaon's myriad civic problems didn't form part of any party's campaign."The focus was on identity politics," he says.

The ISLAM party successfully targeted Mufti Ismael as having done nothing to protect the city's Muslims against allegations that many of them were illegal migrants who had procured fake birth certificates, says Mubasshir.

3,400 birth certificates were cancelled, and an SIT was set up to investigate the charges.

Now, the two bitter rivals might come together to run the corporation.

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If Muslim Parties Get Together...

But some in Malegaon fear that could be a mistake. Faizee, for example, feels strongly that instead of relying on the AIMIM or the Congress, Asif Shaikh should tie up with the Shiv Sena which won 18 seats. It fought separately from the BJP which won only two seats.

"This tie up would immediately blunt the BJP's continuous assault on Malegaon as a refuge of illegal immigrants and criminals," reasons Faizee.

The undivided Sena and the Congress, often had tie ups in the municipal body, he says, so it would not be seen as a surprising development.

The tie-up would also bring both funds and development to Malegaon, adds Faizee, given Dada Bhuse's clout as a minister.

Professor Pinjari agrees.

Not just the name ISLAM, but even some of Asif Shaikh's statements and actions he says, ultimately benefit the BJP. Indeed, if only Muslim parties get together to run Malegaon, Hindutva organisations would have a field day agitating against the corporation, he fears.

Mubasshir points out that a competitive communal posturing was indulged in both by the ISLAM party and the AIMIM during the municipal elections. He doesn't think either or both of them would be interested in resolving the basic problems of the city, not even those relating to Muslims, such as closure of Urdu municipal schools.

"Even sober members of the ISLAM party as well as the AIMIM," says Professor Pinjari,"privately admit that Muslims of Malegaon haven't benefited by having 'one of their own' representing them either in the corporation or the assembly. Someone capable from the other community might work for us better, they say."

"Can there be a more pathetic comment on the community in Malegaon?" he asks.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff