Muslims Organize Panchayats to Decide Whom to Vote For

AJMER: Muslim voters these days in the district are organizing meetings and panchayats to decide which party to vote in the upcoming elections. A big part of this community feels jammed as they fear BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and on other hand is disappointed with Congress. Absolute Muslim areas like Taragarh, Dargah, Khanpura and Sarwar see panchayats happen regularly to decide keeping these issues in mind .

There are about 4,65,000 Muslim voters out of the 16 lakh population of the eight constituencies. In some of these places, this community has played an important role in deciding the future of the candidates. "The Muslim voters in the Dargah region are 35,000 and towns like Sarwar, Nasirabad, Khanpura, Salemabad and Roopangargh are densely populated with Muslims .

In the last assembly elections, there was a 10 to 12 % overall swing towards BJP from this community. From Ajmer North, 5.5 % Muslims voted for the BJP candidate. "Now the major problem is that Muslim voters are coming and asking that if they vote for their BJP candidate, it may bring Narendra Modi to power," said professor Manan Rahi, a leader of Muslim community. He said that they are in dilemma and want to know whom they should vote .

Voters of Taragarh protest against Narendra Modi in their panchayat sessions. They said that they have fear of fanaticism and want their leaders to clear their doubts. "We are not against BJP but have decided to vote against Modi," said Hafiz Ali, leader of Taragarh. He further said that they are not in favor of Congress either as there was no development in their region .

Sarwar town, that faced three communal riots in the last five years, witnesses waves against Congress. "Congress failed to bring peace to this town. People are angry that neither senior Congress leader nor any minister of the government came to help at the time of riots," said Mohammad Anis of Sarwar .

In Ajmer North, about 35,000 Muslim voters are against BJP as their last BJP MLA neglected them and no development took place in the region of the internationally renowned dargah. "Thousands of devotees come daily to this place but the BJP did not attempt to take any measures for the development of the region. There was a budget of Rs 300 crore but it lapsed," said Mahmood Khan, leader of dargah bazaar .

Even Muslim BJP leaders are silent on the issue of Narendra Modi. "If a good number of people from these areas vote then most certainly that will indicate a loss to BJP but if they do not come out to vote, it will not be good for Congress," said a leader .

Whereas in Pushkar, Congress retained Muslim voters by nominating Muslim candidate Naseem Akhtar as there are 32 % Muslim voters in this constituency. In Masuda, where BJP and Congress neglected Muslim candidate, both the parties will have to face a sweep as Chetas and Maharats of this region have nominated their independent candidate .