Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 25 (ANI): The Muslim Voter Council of India on Thursday wrote a letter to Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Nationalist Congress Party-Sharad Chandra Pawar (NCP-SCP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and expressed their “disappointment” over not fielding Muslim candidates in the Lok Sabha elections.
Adbul Bari Khan, Chief Convenor, of the Muslim Voter Council of India, said that the polling for the first phase has been completed and we are looking for the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh phases.
“After Rahul Gandhi did Nyay Yatra from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and the second yatra from Assam to Bombay, trust grew among the secular people that the country was going to get a good leadership because of Congress’s alliance with opposition parties, but when tickets were distributed… I am saying this with great disappointment that out of 48 seats in Maharashtra, the INDIA bloc and its alliance Maha Vikas Agadi have not yet announced the names of Muslim candidates till now,” Khan told ANI.
He further asked the Congress party and the INDIA bloc how would it fulfill their dream of achieving the target of ‘300 paar’ without getting the support of minorities.
“The same things happened in Delhi, Jharkhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. In 21 States the INDIA bloc has not announced the name of a single Muslim candidate. Today the INDIA bloc is saying that this is the last election in the country and after that no elections will take place and many other things. If you do not take the support of Muslim voters then how will you achieve the target of ‘300 paar’ in the Lok Sabha elections? They want the BJP and their alliance partners should not reach their target of ‘400 paar’ then what formula do they have to stop them?” he added.
Adbul Bari Khan further mentioned the number of tickets distributed by the Congress and the Opposition alliance to minorities.
“Today we have written a letter to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Sharad Pawar, and Uddhav Thackeray too. We have questioned them why they have not fielded Muslim candidates. If the talk about Bombay then there are two pockets, South Mumbai, and North Central where the population of Muslims is about 4 to 4.5 lakh. If you do not give us tickets then how will our representative go to the parliament? Where they have given the tickets are Andhra Pradesh (1 ticket), Assam (2 tickets), Karnataka (1 ticket), Odisha (1 ticket), Bihar (4 tickets), Kerala (3 tickets), Uttar Pradesh (Congress 2 tickets, SP has given 4), West Bengal (5 ticket CPI (M) has given 2 tickets), in Jammu and Kashmir Congress has not given ticket to Muslim…Why you have not given tickets according to the Muslim population?”
He further said that the Congress party should have given 43 seats to Muslims from their quota from the 543 Lok Sabha seats.
“If the Congress and Opposition alliance will not take our points seriously then they won’t be able to reach the target of 300 seats in the elections. Out of 543 seats the Congress party should have given 43 seats to Muslims from their quota,” he said.
Khan further asked why Muslims should vote for the Congress and their alliance partners and suggested Congress leaders, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, and Mallikarjun Kharge think about this.
The Muslim Voter Council of India in their letter congratulated all the contestants of the first phase of Lok Sabha General Elections 2024 for participating in the democratic electoral processes.
“The Congress-led INDIA bloc and MVA have very selectively given representation to candidates of different castes, creeds, and communities all over India but their major partners have miserably failed, neglected, and/or avoided to give a single election ticket or representation to any ONE Muslim of 300 million plus community for representing the 543 members Lok Sabha from the many states such as New Delhi, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh including Maharashtra etc,” they stated in the letter.
The Council further said that they have specifically asked Malikarjun Kharge, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) Udhav Balasaheb Thakare of Congress lead of INDIA bloc and to chief of all other concerned secular political parties MVA Alliance to justify their stand on the vital issue.
India will go for the second phase of Lok Sabha elections tomorrow in a high-stakes battle across 13 states and union territories with the campaign marked by sharp jibes by the leaders of BJP as also by Congress and other opposition parties.
Voting will begin at 7 am tomorrow and will conclude at 6 pm. The Lok Sabha election is being held in seven phases till June 1 and votes will be counted June 4. (ANI)
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