Gujarat just has 9 percent Muslims out of the total population of about 6.76 crores. With 182 assembly seats, the ideal representation should be at least 16 MLAs representing the community. But the fact is that Muslims were represented by two MLAs in 2012 assembly which was reduced from seven in 2007 and three in 2002.

The decreasing trend in the communities’ representation is a classic case of Muslims not willing to vote for the elections and political parties not being interested in asking for their votes because they hardly come out to practice their political right.

Congress till a decade back was considered the main party attracting the Muslim votes and even being targeted by other political parties of appeasing a single community only for political mileage. However, things have changed for the Congress party as well as the Muslim community since the early 2000s especially in Gujarat which witnessed the riots in 2002.

Gujarat’s Muslims are a marginalized lot post the riots and have hardly any political relevance. The community also is alienated with the political parties who have hardly done anything for them to merge with social structure, thus restricting themselves to ghettos and community societies in the old part of the city.

In Ahmedabad, like any other city in Gujarat, Muslims probably feel safe in staying with their community members. The city also does not allow them to buy or rent properties in the western part which is modern and has better amenities. Their political relevance has thus been totally reduced to playing second fiddle to other strata of OBCs, tribal, Dalits, and Patidars who rank higher in desirability to align with for the political parties.

However, BJP is trying to woo the Muslims to vote for the party, as they have been doing for, since some time, either out of fear or compulsion of keeping themselves relevant. BJP also requires their support as only Hindu votes will not be able to sail them through in these difficult times. The party is also said to be using the support of Muslim clerics to push the community members to vote the BJP. In order to improve their equations of the already spoiled election scene, about 50 Maulvis from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have been called to Gujarat to work for party’s benefit.

If the grapevine is to be believed then Maulvis from UP and Bihar have been brought to Gujarat and are put up at a star hotel in Ahmedabad. The clerics are expected to talk to their community and propagate the idea of, “what has Congress done for you?” and not to ask them directly to vote for the BJP. The idea is to steal away votes from the Congress by instigating local Muslim leaders to vote against the Congress candidates.

The Bhartiya Janata Party has largely dominated the political centre stage in Gujarat but has shown little interest in the Muslim community. However, Muslims have been regularly voting for the BJP and according to reports, there is a “queue” of Muslims for a BJP ticket for the forthcoming elections.