Madhya Pradesh's Mev Muslims angry with Congress over ticket denial

Bhopal, Nov 14 (IANS) Muslims belonging to the Mev community in Madhya Pradesh are disenchanted with the Congress. With the party not fielding anyone from their community for the Nov 27 assembly polls, the Mev Muslims have threatened to vote en masse for other party candidates.

Mev Muslims have a population of 3.

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2 million in the state, and have a strong presence in Mandsaur, Kannod, Dewas, Khategaon, Jaora, Ratlam, Susner, Narsinghgarh, Agar and Bagli constituencies.

Claiming there is a sizeable population of Mev Muslims in Bhopal and its surroundings, Madhya Pradesh Mev Muslim Sangharsh Samiti president Abdul Hafiz told IANS: 'We may support a candidate of the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party or any Independent, but will not vote for the Congress."

"Though traditionally Mev Muslims were Congress supporters, but we will have to rethink our stand as our demand for a ticket has never been met. This time we were quite hopeful as the demand was put up even before Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi," Hafiz said.

'We may even support the BJP, if its candidate suits us, but not the Congress at any cost,' he reiterated.

He said that instead of Nasir Islam, the Congress should have fielded a nominee from their community, Mohammad Salim, for the Bhopal Central constituency. He said that 40 percent voters of this constituency comprise Mev Muslims.

Muslims constitute over four million of Madhya Pradesh's 60 million population. The Congress has put up only five Muslim candidates.