Mumbai: Muslim politicians, Ulemas from religious organisations, and community NGOs are planning to meet in Mumbai on Tuesday to decide the political strategy for Muslim voters after nominations of candidates by major parties revealed a low representation of Muslims.

The five major parties in the two political blocks have announced candidates for most of the assembly seats in Mumbai. The Congress has three Muslims on their list: Amin Patel, Aslam Shaikh, and Naseem Khan from Mumbadevi, Malad (West), and Chandivali respectively.

Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party has announced the names of Sana Malik, daughter of sitting Anushakti Nagar MLA, from her father's seat, and Zeeshan Siddique, son of former Congress MLA Baba Siddiqui who was murdered earlier this month, from Bandra (East).

Sharad Pawar's NCP and the two Senas have not announced any Muslim candidates from the city. Mumbai has 36 of the 288 seats in the Maharashtra legislative assembly.

The dismay in the community was conveyed by Yusuf Abrahani, former Congress MLA from Byculla, who posted a message on social media Friday morning. "BJP does not give tickets to Muslims. If even UBT (Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena faction) does not give tickets to Muslims after getting unprecedented support from Muslims in the parliamentary elections, what should Muslims do? Should they support UBT after such an insult?," asked Abrahani.

"I have been getting calls from community members since morning about the fact that the Sena (UBT) has not announced a single Muslim candidate from the city. The BJP has no Muslim candidates. So what is the difference between the UBT Sena and the BJP? If the Sena (UBT) is doing this after getting overwhelming support from Muslims from across the state in the parliamentary elections, what should Muslims do?" asked Abrahani, who is a former MLA from Byculla and the president of the Islam Gymkhana.

Abrahani, who is hoping to get nominated from Byculla again said that he does not have much hope as the Maha Vikas Aghadi that includes the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (Sharad Pawar) may allot the seat to Shiv Sena (UBT).

"I have asked the community to wait till October 29 when things will be clearer. We are meeting in the city. We will be supporting the INDI Alliance but if they are reluctant to give seats to Muslims we should rethink our strategy," Abrahani said, adding that the venue for the meeting is yet to be decided.

Altaf Patel, a businessman from the city who is part of the 'Muslim Pressure Group' formed after the parliamentary elections to increase the community's representation in elected bodies, said that Muslim politicians are speaking about the unfair allocation of seats to Muslims only after they found themselves sidelined.

"In the last assembly, we had 10 Muslim MLAs in the state assembly. This time, looking at the way parties have distributed seats to Muslims, the number could be even lower," said Patel.

Patel said the grievance about major parties not allocating enough seats to Muslims will only lead to the entry of parties like All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen which will end up splitting Muslim votes and helping the BJP indirectly.