Hyderabad: Different groups of Gujarat Muslims have approached All India Majlis-e-Itehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) to set up a branch in Gujarat before the municipal elections in February 2020.
Meeting in Delhi and Mumbai, various groups pledged political and gro-und support to the AIMIM if it represented them.
The Congress’s marginalisation after adopting “soft Hindutva” severely hurt Muslims in Gujarat. “The Congress in Gujarat is scared to stand by our side. Local leaders have been avoiding us. This comatose state of the Congress has left a vacuum and we want AIMIM to fill it,” Zuber Goplani, vice-president of All India Majlis-E-Mushavarat said.
Muslim youth in Gujarat realise that neither the BJP nor the Congress are interested in them.
Abdul Qayum Shaikh of the Bazme-Ittehad, Vadodra, said: “We are finding that a separate identity for Muslims and other backward classes is needed. National political parties are not giving marginalised sections the representation they deserve. We are unhappy with how Congress leaders keep a distance from the community. The Congress’s real stand on core issues has emerged in Parliament, while the AIMIM presented the community’s stand in a logical manner and convinced not only the community but also those who are secular.”
The administration’s behaviour towards business and small-scale industry has verged on offensive. “We want our voice to be heard in political circles as the response of elected councillors and MLAs is cold. MLAs have thrice rejected my administrative request saying that Muslims don’t vote BJP,” Sagir Ahmed Ansari, of Vadodra, told this newspaper.
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi, however declined to discuss the party’s expansion in Gujarat.
