The election campaign for the civic elections being held in many cities of Maharashtra is now in its final stages, but everyone's eyes are fixed on the elections of the country's richest Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). This time the religious atmosphere is more visible in the BMC elections, despite this the average representation of Muslim candidates remains almost the same as before. This time, a total of 334 Muslim candidates, including candidates from different political parties and independents, are in the electoral fray in Mumbai.
Asaduddin Owaisi's party AIMIM remained at the forefront in giving tickets to the maximum number of Muslim candidates in the BMC elections. Similarly, Samajwadi Party and Ajit Pawar faction's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) also distributed tickets extensively to Muslim candidates. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not given ticket to even a single Muslim candidate, while both the constituents of Shiv Sena have given tickets to Muslim candidates.
The number of Muslim voters in Mumbai city is 25.6 percent while in the suburbs it is 19.19 percent. In the 2017 elections, a total of 360 Muslim candidates, including all parties and independent candidates, were in the fray. Whereas this time a total of 1700 candidates are contesting the elections, and out of these, 334 candidates (about 19 percent) come from the Muslim community.
However, it is also being said that due to the implementation of women's reservation this time in many Muslim dominated wards, the number of male candidates has decreased. A total of 45 wards in Mumbai are Muslim dominated, out of which Muslim voters play a decisive role in 30 wards.
In BMC elections, AIMIM has given maximum tickets to Muslim candidates. AIMIM has fielded 32 candidates, of which 25 are Muslim candidates. In this way, 78% of the candidates contesting elections on party tickets come from the Muslim community. After this comes Samajwadi Party. Out of 70 candidates of the party, 50 candidates are Muslims and this is 71% of the total number.
After this comes Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress (NCP). 94 candidates of NCP are trying their luck in the field, out of which 24% i.e. 23 are Muslim candidates. Congress has also given 21 percent tickets to Muslim candidates. The party is contesting on 150 seats and out of these, 33 are Muslim candidates.
Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded 137 candidates in the BMC elections, but not a single Muslim candidate is in the fray on the party's ticket. While Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's party Shiv Sena gave tickets to 10 percent of its 91 candidates i.e. 10 people from the Muslim community, while Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena fielded 163 candidates and out of these 8 candidates are Muslims. In this way the party gave 5% tickets to Muslims.
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Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena is also contesting on 53 seats in the BMC elections and has given tickets to only 2 Muslim candidates (4%). Apart from political parties, 91 out of 334 Muslim candidates are contesting the elections as independents. In this way, 45 candidates are in the fray from registered small parties while 198 are from national and state level parties.
Although BJP had fielded Shakeel Ansari as its only Muslim candidate from Ward No. 124, but due to his nomination being declared illegal, not a single Muslim candidate of BJP is in the electoral fray. Apart from these, other small parties include a total of 45 Muslim candidates including BSP (8), Aam Aadmi Party (9), Communist Party of India (1), Communist Party of India-Marx (1), Janata Dal (1), Muslim League (2) and Republican Party (3) etc.
If we look at the previous election results, a total of 31 Muslim candidates had won in the 2017 elections. Among these, Congress got the most success because it won 11 places, 7 from Samajwadi Party, 6 from undivided Nationalist Congress, 4 from AIMIM, 2 from undivided Shiv Sena and 1 independent candidate was included.
