JDS Muslim Convention Held in Bangalore

Bangalore - Ahead of the 2013 elections, the JD(S) is aggressively working on social engineering and an image makeover. As a part of this campaign, JDS held an exclusive convention for Muslims here at Palace Grounds on Sunday.

With two dominant castes -- Lingayats and Vokkaligas - polarized to a great extent, political parties are looking towards other groups. The JD(S) has earnestly begun wooing Muslims, who constitute 16 % of the state's population.

JD(S) state unit chief H D Kumaraswamy has promised to field 15 to 20 candidates in the next assembly polls. Currently, it has one Muslim MLA of its total 26 members.

"The benefits meant for Muslims are not reaching them and they continued to be neglected. The Muslim convention is to unite them and press for their rights,'' said Kumaraswamy.

Traditionally, Muslims have supported Congress. The emergence of Janata Parivar gave them an option. Over the years, with multiple splits, Janata Party had to face erosion in its earlier base. After the coalition government, most Muslim tilted towards the Congress, questioning the credentials of the JD(S).

The party has realized that the political landscape of the state has changed dramatically in the last five years and hence is giving special emphasis for wooing Muslims. The party feels the Vokkaliga plus Muslim combination would help in capturing more assembly segments and thereby inch closer to assuming or partnering power. The BJP is wooing Lingayats, while the Congress is focusing on Dalits and OBCs.

The Gowda clan has realized that the Muslim community in the state neither has a proper political representation nor a popular leader. It is a known fact that Muslims have never been able to get proportionate representation either in the assembly or in council in the post-independent history of the state. To be properly represented (if population is considered), Muslims candidates should win about 26 seats. But, at no time did the state assembly have so many MLAs. The maximum was 18 MLAs. In 1978.

Targeting ruling BJP and Congress and with an eye on Assembly polls next year, JDS sought to clear doubts about its secular credentials after it formed a coalition government in Karnataka with BJP in 2006.

Addressing a Muslim Convention, organised by JDS, party supremo and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda said his son H D Kumaraswamy committed a mistake by forming the government with BJP.

Kumaraswamy committed the mistake of forming government with BJP as the Congress attempted to divide JDS, Gowda said.

"I am not after a chief minister's or any other post. Fighting for secular credentials is important for me than vouching for power," he said.

Gowda slammed the BJP government for not appointing a member from minority community in the Karnataka Public Service Commission.

Gowda said during his tenure as the chief minister, he took the decision to introduce four per cent reservation for minorities in government jobs.

He said his family did not appease Vokkaliga community alone when he was chief minister, but had given five per cent reservation for Lingayat community. "I gave four per cent reservation for Vokkaliga," he said.

Gowda said his party had come to the rescue of the minority people whenever they were in trouble and had written to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to conduct an inquiry into the SabarmatiExpress tragedy.

Kumaraswamy said he took several measures to protect the interests of Muslims even after joining hands with BJP.

JDS MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan alleged that Congress were misleading Muslims and using them as vote bank.

Muslims are spread across the state and this is reflected in the seats that have returned Muslim candidates. They have been won by garnering votes from all communities. However, they are more in number in Dakshina Kannada, Bidar, Gulbarga, Dharwad, Kodagu, Haveri, Bijapur, Raichur, Ramanagaram and Bangalore rural districts. The JD(S) has planned to field more candidates from the community in these places.