Congress strategy in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh perplexes its Muslim leaders

The Congress party in Madhya Pradesh is attempting to appeal to Hindu voters, which has upset Muslim party leaders who fear losing support to the AIMIM.

The Congress in Madhya Pradesh has been on an overdrive to appease the majority Hindu voters in the state going to polls in December. The party cadre chanted “Jai Shree Ram” at public events, state party president Kamal Nath declared that he is a follower of Lord Hanuman, the party will conduct Narmada Aarti and Sunderkand Path across the state and has even set up a 'Dharmik and Utsav Prakosth' wing led by Sadhvi Richa Goswami, a well-known spiritual storyteller, to organise religious programmes.

The Congress in Madhya Pradesh has been on an overdrive to appease the majority Hindu voters in the state going to polls in December. (File photo)

Their approach has, however, upset the party’s Muslim party leaders, who believe that it would lead to the party’s Muslim voters moving towards the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), which speaks about community issues. “Barring Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh, no other leader speaks on our issues and talks about our welfare,” said a party’s senior Muslim leader who did not wish to be named, expressing his disenchantment with the party’s new approach.

The Congress leader quoted above expressed his anguish over what they’re referring to as a “Hindutva focus” when Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi visited Jabalpur on June 13. The party had decorated the city with maces (which symbolise Lord Hanuman) and there were party workers in Lord Hanuman’s garb on the stage with Gandhi as she kicked start the election campaign.

“This is against the secular credentials of the party and has created insecurity among the Muslim community. There seems to be a competition among our party leaders to show who is the bigger devotee of Lord Hanuman,” he said.

What further irked Muslim leaders from the party was when Bajrang Sena, a small saffron outfit known for its vigilantism on cattle traders, joined the Congress in Bhopal last month in the presence of senior party leaders such as Kamal Nath.

A delegation of leaders met Nath in the last week of May and demanded a separate chapter on Muslim welfare in the party’s election manifesto. The leaders also asked for a call to ban Bajrang Dal as was promised by the party in its manifesto for the recently-concluded Karnataka polls, and asked the party to review all cases registered under the state’s anti-conversion and anti-cow slaughter laws, which they claimed targeted Muslims.

As a part of its manifesto in Karnataka which went to polls in May, the Congress proposed a ban on organisations that “promote enmity or hatred” such as the Islamic outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) and Bajrang Dal. “We believe that law and Constitution are sacrosanct and cannot be violated by individuals and organisations like Bajrang Dal, PFI, or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities. We will take decisive action as per law including imposing a ban on any such organisations,” the manifesto said. The party later said that the state does not have the power to ban organisations like Bajrang Dal, but clarified that its manifesto was referring to organisations that disrupted peace.

“Muslim and Christian supporters are feeling disenchanted. This might be a reason that AIMIM and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) are making inroads in Madhya Pradesh,” a Muslim leader who attended the meeting with Nath said.

Congress MLA Arif Masood, who participated at the meeting and refused to comment on Hindutva agenda, said, “We asked the party leaders to have a separate section in the manifesto on Muslim community welfare to instil trust. We want development issues in the manifesto. We raised the issues of scholarship for minority community students, the need to resolve all Waqf board land disputes and developing burial grounds for Muslims.”

Another Congress leader said they wanted the party to promise amendments in the MP Freedom of Religion Act 2021 for proper investigation before arrest and re-investigation of all cases registered between 2021 to December 2023. As many as 133 people have been booked under this act and 92 are against Muslim men. “We have also sought a reinvestigation of cases on Muslims during communal clashes in Khargone in 2022 and withdrawal of fake cases,” he said, adding that the leadership assured action if they won the polls.

Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP, Digvijaya Singh, however, refuted the claims that the minority community leaders of the party were upset with the proactive Hindutva approach. “Nobody is uncomfortable. It is Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders who are making it an issue, to divert the attention from inflation, unemployment and issues like corruption. In the Constitution, every person has a right to follow his or her religion,” he said.

Congress MLA and former minister PC Sharma said, "We all are religious but we never show off like BJP. Now, people are realising that it's Congress who thinks about the welfare of all religions. This is the reason the leaders of organisations like Bajrang Sena and other BJP leaders are joining the Congress. MPCC president Kamal Nath had constructed lord Hanuman temple many years. We come up with concepts of Mahakaal Lok and Ram Van Gaman Path but we never publicised it much. Now, we are grabbing the eyeballs of disenchanted Hindus."

The political experts also said that Congress leaders in MP are trying to prove that they are with Hindus to win their trust. "This is more looking like a pilot project of Congress to move ahead with this agenda in the Lok Sabha election. The state unit can't push an agenda so fiercely without the support of top leadership. The election result of 2023 in MP will prove that whether this Congress's Hindutva approach is right or wrong," said Girija Shankar, a political expert from MP.

BJP tries to woo Muslims

BJP minority cell leader Nasir Shah said the new Congress approach showed how the party sought to garner votes. “Muslims were always used by Congress for votes. They never did anything remarkable for us. Now, people want development not this Hindu-Muslim issue,” he said.

The ruling BJP in turn, tried to woo Muslims in Khargone, where local BJP leaders placed advertisements in Khargone on April 28 and 29 that chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on April 30 would inaugurate a bakery, owned by Amzad Khan, which was demolished after communal tension in April 2022. However, after protests by religious organisations and a section of BJP leaders, the CM didn’t inaugurate it.

There are two Muslim MLAs in MP and both are from the Congress. In the 2022 local bodies election, the BJP gave tickets to 380 Muslim candidates of whom 94 won, while the Congress gave tickets to 450 Muslim candidates of whom 344 won. The Muslim population of the state is 6.57 %, as per the 2011 census, with Bhopal and Burhanpur districts having more than 20% Muslim population.

Meanwhile, the AIMIM announced its intention to contest the state assembly election. The party’s confidence comes from its success in the local body polls where it won six councillor seats in the Muslim-dominated areas of Khargone, Khandwa, Burhanpur and Jabalpur. In Burhanpur, the Congress mayoral candidate Shehnaz Ismail Alam lost to BJP’s Madhur Patel by 1,000 votes. The AIMIM candidate, Shaista Advocate polled 10,000 votes and Congress blamed Asaduddin Owaisi’s party for the loss.

To be sure, the AIMIM has not won any seat in MP assembly elections till now, and a few wins on local body polls do not translate into wins in the assembly election. accused the Congress of using Muslims as a vote bank and never thinking about their welfare. “This assembly election, we will contest on real issues of Muslims and with the secular move of treating all religions alike,” said AIMIM state president Peerzada Tauqeer Nizami.

“The Muslim community was always with Congress and will remain with Congress. We know that MP Congress Committee president Kamal Nath will do justice to all. Minority community will never believe AIMIM, which is a B-team of BJP,” Congress spokesperson Ameen Ul Khan Suri said.