More on Ummid : International l National l Regional l Politics l Sports l Religion l History l Culture l Education

Tough battle ahead for Congress in Bhiwandi

An imminent division of the secular votes in the Muslim dominated textile town is making the election difficult for the Congress candidate

Tuesday April 14, 2009, ummid.com Staff Reporter

Video: Message of Unity from Malegaon

'India Unity'

An English Play briliantly staged by Little Kids

More Videos on ummid

Mushairah on

National Integration in Malegaon

Kavi Sammlen on Communal Harmony in Malegaon

Inter College

Patriotic songs competition

More on Indian Muslims

Inquilab 1857 to Sacchar Report-Nothing has changed for Indian Muslims: Leaving behind the dark memories of the renewed terror and trauma for the Muslims in India... Read Full

Will Indo-Pak peace bring peace to

beleaguered Indian Muslims? While the secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan has commenced...Read Full

‘Advising Restraint, work for the Revival of the Community’: We should advise the Indian Muslims for observing total restraint so that the Anti-Muslim forces ...Read Full

Ummid Special on Terrorism

The Hidden Face of the Terrorism Exposed At last: A nation under the siege, innocent lives are at stake and the basic structure of the country in itself is at risk. Are we doing enough to combat the terrorism? With the investigations into Malegaon blast advancing rapidly, the hitherto hidden face of the terror is finally being exposed to the world and the assertion that the terrorism is a baby of only a particular community, in limelight after every act of terror, is now be....Full Story

Voiceover

Fascism and Terrorism: Two Sides of the same coin: “It seems that the fascist forces with a clear anti-Muslim agenda have infiltrated the security forces. Since the Indian... Read Full

Our terror, their terror: Shortly before LK Advani spoke at the HT Summit on Friday, I was chatting to Ajit Doval. Though he is not yet a household name, Doval is a former director of the Intelligence...Read Full

Malegaon, a town in India with more than 70% Muslim population has always been considered as a communally sensitive place. However, there is a place in Malegaon where a Mosque and a Mandir exist side by side with Muslims and Hindus, both living there in peace since last many years. Same is the case with the whole town. Except for the...Full Story

More Election News from Maharashtra

Multi Cornered contest on cards in Nashik: Nashikites have always gone for a change, never elected a candidate twice and punished those who take them for a ride. Who holds the chance

now?...Read Full

More Election News

Pardon us, if this is the Ram Rajya: Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) while releasing the party manifesto reaffirmed its faith in Ram Rajya. ‘Our ultimate aim is to bring the Ram Rajya....Read Full

Dancing to Her Own Tune: After Mallika Sarabhai announced she would take on the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani in Gandhinagar, V.R. Krishna Iyer, former judge of the Supreme Court, wrote to her: “Values must matter in politics and public....Read Full

Hills have eyes on BJP: Politics in Himachal Pradesh veers largely around regional faultlines that thread through the old and merged areas of the mountainous state. Caste has never been a factor in the elections here...Read Full

Bhiwandi: Bhiwandi located at less than a hundred kilometer from Mumbai is in fact one of the most important textile centers in India. However despite being so near to Mumbai and a textile hub of unprecedented potential, the town could not get its due share of the infrastructure and development work. Instead the town remains as a backward area with an unending list of its own problems and issues that is growing with every passing day.

One of the many reasons for this could be the unfortunate fact that Bhiwandi like Malegaon is another town in Maharashtra that is dominated by the Muslims but was part of a parliamentary constituency that was reserved for Scheduled Cast/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) ever since the Independence. This is the reason why in last sixty years the town could not send to the Parliament a member who could have raised the local issues in front of the Government in a proper manner. However thanks to the decision taken by the Delimitation Committee, Bhiwandi is now an unreserved and open parliamentary constituency of its own and is all set to send a son of the soil as its Member of Parliament (MP).

On the expected lines hence the parliamentary election in Bhiwandi has become comparatively more important this time. The streets are witnessing hectic activities and the atmosphere is politically charged as candidates are using various means of campaigning to woo the voters who will be voting on April 30, 2009.

Though a total of 16 candidates are fighting the election in Bhiwandi, the candidates from Congress, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and Samjwadi Party (SP) are considered as the strong contenders for the seat. While Congress has fielded Suresh Kashinath Towre as its candidate, Samajwadi Party (SP) has wooed Raghunath Ratan Patil - former Congress taluka president to contest the election on its party ticket. They are facing stiff fight from the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance candidate Jagannath Shivram Patil, a former minister.

Interestingly the Congress and SP candidates both are banking on the Muslim votes that numbers to a deciding 3,75,000 voters out of the total 14,85,351 in the constituency and anyone who gets the majority of the Muslim votes can certainly emerge as victor. At the same time Shiv Sena-BJP alliance candidate, who has a strong traditional pocket votes firmly behind him is looking at the split of the Muslim votes to win over the prestigious seat.

“There of course is a possibility of the division of the Muslim votes benefitting the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance candidate”, Dr. Rehan Ansrai, a columnist with an Urdu Mumbai daily and a reputed medical practitioner says to ummid.com. “However the things are not that easy for the Saffron alliance. There are certain minor issues with the Congress candidate and if they are resolved in time, he can easily win the election.”

However Faizan Azmi, a local Muslim leader and president of the Powereloom Federation is not so optimistic. “Raghunath Patil by deciding to contest the election against the Congress candidate has really made the election difficult for the secular people”, he candidly admitted while speaking to ummid.com. “Furthermore the Muslims in the town who had expected that the Congress high command would give the party ticket to a Muslim candidate as the town has a vast majority of Muslim voters are upset. The opponents are using the anger against the Congress leadership to their own benefits. Against this backdrop it will not surprise anyone if Shiv Sena-BJP candidate wins the election”, he added.

Meanwhile in a dramatic move, Dr. Shakeel Mohd Yunus Ansari who had filed his nomination papers as a Maharashtra United Democratic Front –an extension of Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) formed by Badruddin Ajmal Qasmi, candidate decided to withdraw from the election. As Dr. Shakeel would have surely eaten some of his pocket votes, the decision must have provided a timely relief to the Congress candidate Suresh Towre but he still faces a tough battle ahead.

Home | Top of the page

Comment on this article

Sare Jahan Se Accha

Hindustan Hamara

In 1905 more than 100 years from today, when Iqbal was a lecturer at the Government College, Lahore he was invited by his student Lala Hardayal to preside over a function. Instead of making a speech, Iqbal sang Sare Jahan Se Accha Hindustan Hamara in his style. Iqbal compiled this poem in praise of India and the poem preaches the communal harmony that had unfortunately started ceasing in India by that time. Each and every word in this poem depicts an Indian’s respect and love for the motherland and the values the Indian society inherited for long...Read Full

Ummid Business: Advertise with us | Careers | Link Exchange

Ummid.com is part of Awaz Multimedia & Publications providing World News, News Analysis and Feature Articles on Education, Health. Politics, Technology, Sports, Entertainment, Industry etc. The articles or the views displayed on this website are for public information and in no way describe the editorial views. The users are entitled to use this site subject to the terms and condition mentioned.