MUMBAI:
Samajwadi Party
MLA Rais Shaikh on Saturday said that the ‘
social engineering
‘ experiment between
Muslims
and Mahavikas Aghadi (MVA) for the
Lok Sabha elections
has proven successful and will ensure the victory of
MVA
candidates in Mumbai and Maharashtra. The SP workers will be fully active in the next two days to boost voter turnout on May 20, Shaikh added.
Shaikh said that the entire Muslim community is firmly supporting the INDIA Alliance and MVA candidates in the Lok Sabha election.
“We are part of the INDIA Alliance. SP workers are actively campaigning for MVA candidates. I, along with SP workers, visited Shiv Sena (UBT) shakhas in the Byculla area. Both Shiv Sainiks and Muslim leaders also chalked out and executed the campaign strategy for Arvind Sawant, the Sena (UBT) candidate from South Mumbai,” said Shaikh.
The MVA is looking to prevent the division of minority votes by Muslim candidates put up by the AIMIM and VBA in Mumbai. While the AIMIM has not fielded any candidate in South Mumbai, the VBA has fielded Afzal Shabir Ali Dawoodani from South Mumbai. Also Shuaib Khatib, who is trustee of the Jama Masjid in the city, took a plunge into active politics by filing his nomination for Mumbai South on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket. “The SP has significant presence in some seats like South, North Central and North East. So this attempt to integrate SP’s Muslim workers with Sena (UBT) will help the MVA prevent division of Muslim votes,” said a political observer.
Shaikh further highlighted the remarkable integration and success of social engineering between the Muslim community and the Shiv Sainiks in Mumbai. “This unprecedented experiment initiated by SP has yielded tremendous results. SP workers and Muslim youth will continue their efforts to mobilise the maximum number of voters on May 20,” added Shaikh.
SP workers actively campaigned for Congress candidate Varsha Gaikwad from Mumbai North Central. They were prominently involved in campaigning in Chandivali, Asalfa, Bandra, and Kurla areas. “I participated in Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s roadshow in Bandra. I also organised the ‘Minority Youth Conclave’ in Bandra (West) under the aegis of my Ahtesaab Foundation. Varsha Gaikwad, the Congress candidate from Mumbai North Central, and Anil Desai, the Sena (UBT) candidate from Mumbai South Central, interacted with the youth,” he added.
In the Bhiwandi Lok Sabha constituency, SP activists campaigned extensively for Suresh Mhatre, alias Balyamama, the candidate of the NCP led by Sharad Pawar. “A conference was convened with Maulanas in Bhiwandi. Muslim women carried out ‘door to door’ campaigning for him. Also, I urged our party workers to vigorously campaign for Congress candidate Chhatrapati Shrimant Shahu Maharaj from Kolhapur Lok Sabha constituency,” he added.
