KASARAGOD: Somashekhara J S, the Congress panchayat president of Enmakaje, is heaving a sigh of relief.
The Manjeshwar assembly election in which IUML s A K M Ashraf defeated BJP state president K Surendran by 745 votes was about proving his mettle as a Congress satrap in the border panchayat surrounded by Hindutva politics.
For the BJP, Enmakaje was crucial to Surendran winning in Manjeshwar. It has the largest population of Hindu voters and gives it the biggest lead around 2,288 votes over the UDF among the eight panchayats.
The party s ministers and MLAs from Karnataka camped in the panchayat for three months specifically persuading the Hindu voters of the Congress and CPM to vote for the BJP. The panchayat-wise break-up of votes proves that the BJP swayed a lot of Congress and the LDF voters in Enmakaje but was just not enough.
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Decoding the Muslim vote in West Bengal
Decoding the Muslim vote in West Bengal
The presence of Abbas Siddique s Indian Secular Front (ISF) and Asaduddin Owaisi s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in the political battlefield has raised questions about whether minorities will support Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
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UPDATED: April 19, 2021 22:30 IST
The upcoming phases in West Bengal covers the Muslim-dominated districts of Uttar Dinajpur, Malda and Murshidabad (Picture Credits: PTI)
West Bengal is witnessing perhaps the most polarised election so far. A Hindu consolidation since 2019 has paid rich electoral dividends for the BJP. What has further complicated matters for Mamata Banerjee is hardline Furfura Sharif cleric Abbas Siddique’s decision to throw his hat in the ring.
Updated:
April 01, 2021 20:19 IST
Can a Muslim party as part of a secular coalition address the problem of Muslim marginalisation in politics?
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AIUDF President Badruddin Ajmal addresses a party rally at Sarukhetri in Barpeta district, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2021.
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Can a Muslim party as part of a secular coalition address the problem of Muslim marginalisation in politics?
Muslims constitute more than one third of the population in Assam and more than one fourth in West Bengal and Kerala that are going to polls. Two political parties in Assam and West Bengal, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and Indian Secular Front (ISF), respectively, are trying to emulate the success of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) in mobilising the community in Kerala.
Why the 30% Muslim vote share is crucial in Bengal, explains Robin Roy
Two leaders vouching for Muslim identity are in the assembly election frayâAIMIM boss and Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi and the Furfura Darbar Sharif preacher Pirzada Abbas Siddiqui
According to the 2011 Census, West Bengal had over 24.6 million Bengali Muslims, who formed 27.01 per cent of the population of the state. Bengali Muslims form the majority of the population in three districts Malda, Murshidabad and Uttar Dinajpur.
The Bengali Muslim population in the state (West Bengal) soon after the Partition in 1947 was around 12 per cent. After Partition, some Bengali Muslims from West Bengal emigrated to East Pakistan (present-day-Bangladesh). However, the Muslim population of several West Bengal districts did grow between the decade of 1941-1951, despite the migration of two-thirds of a million people, to erstwhile East Pakistan.
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