Bhatkal: Amidst the forthcoming Karnataka assembly polls, social media platforms are abuzz demanding to field a Muslim candidate for the Bhatkal-Honnavar Assembly constituency, which has more than 60 thousand Muslim voters.

Late Jukaku Shamsuddin and SM Yahya were the political leaders of Bhatkal who shined in state politics. Both of them were very popular and dynamic politicians. Four decades from now, Bhatkali Muslims, despite having such a large number of community votes, lacked in grooming a Muslim political leader and sending him to the Legislative assembly. The debates on social media have also revolved around how the secular parties have exploited the Muslim votes in the region but have never allowed a Muslim candidate to contest the assembly elections.

There is a wide discussion about this in WhatsApp groups, Facebook pages and Zoom meetings. The topic has become the talk of the time among the Muslim political and religious leaders, and also among the NRI Bhatkalis in the Gulf ahead of the most influential socio-political organization Majlise Islah Wa Tanzeem's support to any candidate in the fray. In general, the majority of them collectively opine that even if it means losing the election, the Tanzeem should support a Muslim candidate and put a show of the strength and significance of their votes. On the other hand, some Congress supporters also argue that fielding a Muslim candidate will pave way for the BJP candidate to win.

The Bhatkal assembly constituency has more than 2,00,000 electorates with a large number of Namadhari and Muslims. According to an estimate, there are about 65,000 Namadhari voters and 60,000 Muslim voters, followed by SC/ST, Moger, Devadiga, Christian, and other caste voters. Here, Muslim votes have played a decisive role in Congress's victory so far. 

In the 2013 Karnataka assembly elections, Inayatullah Shabandari contested on a JDS ticket. Inayatullah stood second in a fray losing to an independent candidate with a small margin. The candidates were in the fray from BJP, Congress, KJP, and an independent. Independent candidate Mankal Vaidya had won with 37,319 votes while JDS candidate Inayatullah Shabandri was runner-up with 27,435 votes. Even though there was widespread support for Inayatullah's contest in that election, there was disapproval from some leaders. However, Inayatullah was successful in achieving a large number of votes.

In the 2018 assembly elections, Tanzeem extended its support to Mankal Vaidya who contested on a Congress ticket, and Inayatullah stepped back from contesting the election. However, Mankal Vaidya received 77,242 votes but lost to the BJP candidate.

Now, there's a widespread demand by fielding a Muslim candidate in the upcoming polls. The demand is being heard strongly, especially among the Muslim youth. In this regard, a fierce campaign is being carried out on social media and an effort is being made to create awareness among Muslims that a community should unite and send a Muslim candidate to the assembly.

With the 2023 assembly polls in sight, Congress trying to scare the Muslims by leaving the scarecrow of the BJP and making sure that the Muslims support the Congress party. The local Muslims say that the time has changed now and why should Muslims sacrifice their votes to defeat BJP? The youth here questions whether Congress will now support a Muslim candidate and prevent the BJP from coming to power. All these years we have been winning people from other communities even though they have enough votes. The Muslims of Bhatkal demand that this time the rest of the community should support us. Also, it seems that the Muslim voters here have come to a firm decision that no matter what the result may be, Muslim candidates should be fielded.

Report in Urdu:

کیا آنے والے اسمبلی انتخابات میں بھٹکل سے اُتارا جائے گا مسلم اُمیدوار؟ سوشیل میڈیا پرجاری ہے زوردار بحث