In the newly formed ministry of Uddhav Thackeray, there are four members from Muslims community. Two of these ministers belong to Nationalist Congress Party- Hasan Mushrif and Nawab- who were awarded cabinet rank, the sole Congress Muslim representative- Aslam Shaikh- also find place in cabinet while Abdul Sattar of Shiv Sena was made Minister of State.
All three alliance partners awarded ministerial position to at least one Muslim, while NCP gave two ministerial berths to the community. Out of total 43 ministerial berths, 4 or around 10 percent went to Muslim MLAs, which corresponds with the percentage of Muslims in the state 11.3 per cent.
The wider representation to Muslim community seems a strategy to counter the rise of AIMIM- the party of a highly communal and divisive leader, Asaduddin Owaisi- which has registered an exponential rise in the party fortunes in last few years.
In the recent assembly election, AIMIM bagged more than 7 lakhs or 1.34 per cent of total votes in the state of Maharashtra, and registered victory on 2 seats. In the last election, the party had won just 4 lakh votes and therefore, registered an increase of 2.48 lakh votes or 0.41 per cent. The party also followed in second place on many seats.
The seats won by AIMIM or where the party bagged second position, were usually represented by any of the so called secular parties- NCP and Congress- which bagged majority of the Muslim votes in the state. The rise of AIMIM has now started to threaten the fortunes of these parties.
Unlike NCP or Congress, the AIMIM openly gives call for communal polarization, and presents itself as party of Muslims. The fear of alienation of Muslim voters has forced the parties like NCP, Congress, to offer more ministerial berths to the representatives of the community.
The rise of AIMIM is not limited to the state of Maharashtra, Muslims in many north Indian states, like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where the Muslim votes went to parties like SP, BSP, JD(U), RJD, are now gradually turning to the Owaisi led party.
In recent Bihar bypolls, AIMIM registered first ever victory in the state assembly election. The vote percentage of the party rose exponentially in most of the North Indian states; especially in local elections (Municipal corporations as well as Panchayati), the party emerged as victorious in many constituencies.
AIMIM mostly contests on Muslim dominated constituencies, where the community’s voter base is above 30 or 40 per cent. Therefore in the Muslim dominated constituencies, the fight is between the ‘secular parties’ and AIMIM. The older voters may still vote for the secular parties, but young voters are feared to be drifting towards hardliners and openly communal parties like AIMIM.
The rise of Owaisi has forced these parties to take more steps to appease the community, as AIMIM besides being a growing and direct threat, the party has also been cutting the vote share of parties like the Congress jeopardising their prospects of victory in the seats.