Mumbai: The elections to the 288-member Maharashtra legislative assembly slated for November 20 is witnessing strong communal polarisation. One of the principal reasons for the defeat of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recent Lok Sabha elections, which found its tally of MPs drop sharply from 23 to a mere nine, is believed to be the result of tactical voting by Muslims who backed the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in a big way.

Muslims backed even Shiv Sena (UBT) candidates like Arvind Sawant despite the past fiercely anti-Muslim stance of the party in the past and its active role in the January, 1992 riots. They deliberately overlooked the fact that the last decision of the state cabinet presided over by Uddhav Thackeray was to rename Aurangabad as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Nagar. They were asked by the Maulanas and other religious leaders to defeat the BJP and its allies even if it meant voting for the Shiv Sena (UBT).

The poor performance of the BJP in Maharashtra which was one of the chief reasons why the party could not reach the half-way mark of 272 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. In several seats the BJP lost because of large scale Muslim voting against it. This was witnessed in Mumbai north-east, Dhule and other seats where the BJP led in five of the six assembly segments, but was overwhelmed in the sixth Muslim-dominated segment.

Having tasted victory Muslim leaders are once again urging members of their community to defeat the Maha Yuti coalition led by the BJP. Interestingly they are not appealing for votes to Muslim candidates.

In at least 40 seats Muslim voters constitute 22 per cent and if they vote en masse they can make a difference to the poll outcome. In Mumbadevi, Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar , Bandra East and other constituencies Muslim voters will call the shots if they vote en bloc.

According to state election commission data of the 4,136 candidates in the fray there are only 420 Muslims and many are independents fielded by vested interests to divide anti-BJP votes. The Congress, for all its talk of secularism, has given tickets to only nine Muslims who constitute 1.30 cr or 11.54 per cent of the state's population. The NCP (Sharad Pawar) has fielded two Muslims and the Shiv Sena (UBT) have fielded one each.

However, all these factors have not deterred influencers in the Muslim community from pursuing their agenda of a BJP-mukt Maharashtra. The Marathi Muslim Seva Sangh, which is a lesser-known organisation, has networked with over 200 NGOs of the minority community in a twin-pronged strategy to enrol maximum number of Muslim voters and then get them to vote against the BJP and its allies.

Maulana Sajjad Nomani of the All India Personal Law Board, who belongs to the Deobandi sect, has openly appealed to Muslims to vote for the MVA. He said voters in as many as 269 seats have been approached. He has even sent a list of demands to MVA leaders and one of them is an immediate ban on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

State Congress chief Nana Patole has already responded positively to these demands. Saeed Noorie of the Raza Academy, which is an influential Barelvi outfit, said "we are not asking Muslims to vote for any particular party or alliance, but asking to come out to vote in big numbers on voting day."

In response to these efforts of Nomani and other Muslim leaders, the Sangh Parivar has started mobilising Hindu voters in a big way. "Our immediate target is to effect at least a 20 per cent increase in Hindu votes. We are going door to door appealing Hindus to vote," a source in the RSS told the FPJ on Saturday.

Thousands of members of all the front organisations of the RSS have fanned out on the field and these efforts are expected to peak on Sunday, which is the last Sunday before the poll. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityatanath's "Batenge toh katenge" slogan and Modi's statement "Ek hai toh safe hai" are being spread extensively with a view to attain mobilisation and consolidation of Hindu votes. Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis accused Muslim leaders of practising "vote jihad." He said that the BJP had no choice but to raise the Hindutva issue in a big way.

As the poll campaigning comes to a close, it is noticed that the poll is getting reduced to a battle between Hindutva and "vote jihad." Other issues like inflation, prices of farm produce like soya and onion, unemployment and massive corruption appear to be taking the back seat.