The MVA didn't part with any tickets to Muslims for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The trio of MVA parties conveniently ignored Muslims who even then flocked to vote for non-Muslim MVA candidates. It worked fine for the MVA. If Rahul Gandhi is LoP, part of the "shreya" goes to Muslims who voted for the MVA despite knowing that no Muslim was given a ticket.

It is the BJP which as a rule doesn't name Muslim candidates. Muslims themselves don't expect the BJP to nominate a Muslim. The arrangement suits the Muslim community as Muslims hardly ever vote for the saffron party. It is a two-way street and never the parallel shall meet. Now, with the Maharashtra Assembly elections closing in fast, a Muslim collective expects greater representation in the Maharashtra Assembly.

Data from 2011 Census had put Maharashtra's Muslim population at 12 percent. Nine out of the state’s 36 districts had a Muslim population of over 15 percent. Waiting on the sidelines is the 'Secularwadi Muslim Front', which is at the forefront of the campaign for more Muslim representation in the Maharashtra assembly. The SMF expects the MVA to be just and fair to the Muslims.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi did not field a single Muslim candidate in the Lok Sabha polls. Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Congress, did fairly well in the LS elections, upstaging the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance. The only thing the Mahayuti lacked was Muslim support, which was wholly-solely for the MVA.

So, to correct the MVA's misplaced priorities, Muslims will not vote for the MVA "for free" anymore, the ‘Secularwadi Muslim Front’ wants the MVA to accede to the SMF demand for "representation proportionate to Muslim population in Maharashtra." The SMF was poised to undertake a march on August 30 to put pressure on the MVA. To sort out any leftover differences, the SMF was willing to hold talks with the MVA.

Muslims are only now realising that they are merely looked at as a vote-bank. And 78 years have gone down the drain. The Muslim community was prepared to wait till Muslim population crossed a certain critical mass. That critical mass still alludes the community, but 10 years of Modi rule and the impatience in Rahul Gandhi to come to power ,have changed the inclement conditions.

The inability of the secular parties to topple Prime Minister Modi from the high seat and Modi's current slide as well as the fact that his government is a propped-up regime has brought a sea change to the outlook of the common people including Muslims.. Suddenly, Modi is no longer invincible. Modi and the BJP look eminently beatable. Why, Modi can be even toppled if JD(U) and TDP are made to understand what the criticality of their support to Modi meant to the country's future.

The SMF , sources say, is prepared to talk to any political combo and the condition is that they would agree to put the Muslim candidate in their candidates list. The goal is to reach a critical mass of Muslim legislators in both the states and at the Centre. The times they have changed. Whoever would have thought Muslims would gherao late Balasaheb Thackeray's residence and make a clean getaway? It happened when a bunch of Muslims protested outside Matoshree after the Uddhav Sena skipped the debate on the Waqf Bill in the Lok Sabha The Muslims now want their pound of flesh from the MVA for their support extended to MVA in Lok Sabha polls. Like President Droupadi Murmu said in another context, "Enough is enough!" (IPA Service)