SP Muslim face says votebank failed

Muslims attended my meetings, clapped and promised support. But did not vote for us. Yeh to mere saath dhokha hua na (They ditched me).&#146...

Muslims attended my meetings, clapped and promised support. But did not vote for us. Yeh to mere saath dhokha hua na (They ditched me).’’ That could be Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. But this is Abu Asim Azmi, self-proclaimed defender of the Muslims.

After nearly a decade of heading the Samajwadi Party in Maharashtra as state president, Azmi has stepped down. He believes his name gave the party a pro-Muslim image — and no seats, from two in 1999.

‘‘Because I am a Muslim, people felt we are a pro-Muslim party,’’ Azmi rues. He believes his party needs to break free from its pro-Muslim image. ‘‘In 10 years, I couldn’t take the party forward. May be a more ‘secular’ man will be able to.’’

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In Nagpada, where Muslims make up 75 per cent of the population, SP leader Suhail Lokhandwala drew only 5,505 votes and lost to Congress veteran and fellow Muslim Dr Syed Ahmed.

In the powerloom town of Bhiwandi, Azmi himself lost by 40,000 votes, giving the Shiv Sena its first Assembly seat since Independence. Even in Muslim-dominated areas like Kherwadi and Kurla, the party’s candidates could not get more than 3,000-odd votes.

Azmi says Muslims voted the Congress out of fear. ‘‘They didn’t want another Gujarat,’’ he says. All this, after Azmi, a former TADA suspect in the 1993 blasts, cried himself hoarse against victimisation of Muslims over POTA.

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