India consists of almost 1.3 billion of population with diversified culture, here people practices different religions in which almost 14% practices Islam. In numbers it a large community of 180 million Muslims.
By estimates their demographic weight could affect almost every Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha elections.
In India there is lot of myths for Muslim voters like the entire community that practices Islam votes in unison. This myth also includes the notion that the Muslim turnout is always higher, and they vote on the advice of religious clerics.
The 1st myth:-
Muslim’s do not vote for Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) as this party is against community’s interest: This is a total myth as recent data indicates a well-identified pattern among the Muslim voters of the BJP. Peoples of this community who give vote to BJP are well educated, conservative.
Myths about Muslim voters in India don’t cast their votes to Hindu parties:
The 2nd myth:-
There is no Muslim vote bank in India: In 2014, when the Muslim vote should have been the most polarized, the community voted for different parties in different states. The population of this community plays very crucial role in forming new government. This community is not stick to any particular party like others they also vote to their favorite candidate.
The 3rd myth:-
Congress party receives the maximum vote of this community: Not only Congress but all major parties rely on Islam. It is said that after Babri-Masjid case all vote bank of Muslims shifted towards Congress as Muslims think that BJP works on concept of Hinduism only. But surveys show that Muslims do vote to different parties and they give vote to BJP as well.
The 4th myth:-
They vote to those parties which are of Muslim leaders: Parties like All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in Assam, the Peace Party in Uttar Pradesh, and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) in Kerala-have failed in their pursuit of winning community support. This shows that this is a total myth. These parties have some strength in few districts. The AIMIM is restricted to Hyderabad-Sikanderabad region and the AIUDF is a party of Bengali-speaking Muslims. Less than one in five Assamese-speaking Muslims have voted for the AIUDF in the last three elections.
So stop thinking that they are not a vote bank but Muslims had played really crucial role and in coming up election of 2019 they are going to play a important role in making coming up government. All these above myths tell that Muslim voters are not different they are same like other voters.
