Eye on BMC polls, Shiv Sena tries to woo Muslims

Mumbai: Ahead of the BMC polls, Shiv Sena is trying desperately to woo Muslim voters, who have traditionally been the vote bank of Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) and more recently, MIM. The task has been assigned to Haji Arafat Shaikh, who heads Sena's Maharashtra Shiv Vahtuk Sena. The party is also planning to field Muslim candidates from Muslim dominated areas in the city.

A few days ago, Mr Shaikh succeeded in bringing a prominent Muslim leader, Sajid Soopariwala, vice president of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), into the party fold. Along with Mr Soopariwala, who belongs to the affluent Memon community, some more leaders from the Bohri community and SP will join Sena in coming days, said Mr Shaikh.

“It’s a wrong notion that Sena is an anti-Muslim party. It was during Sena-BJP’s rule in 1996 that the Haj committee building construction was completed. An additional four FSI was given for construction of masjids so that Muslims don’t have to do Namaz on roads. Educational tabs were distributed to Urdu medium schools too by the BMC, which is ruled by Sena,” said Mr Shaikh, who is the nephew of late Sabir Shaikh, labour minister of the erstwhile Sena-BJP government in the nineties.

Mr Shaikh added that he would be campaigning for Sena at all masjids in the city, showing Muslims the good work done by the party. They were also planning to hold rallies of Uddhav and Aaditya Thackeray in Muslim majority areas in the city. The Marathi Muslims would be their main target, he said. The Sena leader alleged that the MIM was trying to spread communal hatred in the city.