There is a mixed reaction from city's minority leaders towards the launch of Jamaat-e-Islami-supported Welfare Party of India (WPI), whose district office was inaugurated in the city on Saturday, a month before the formal state-wide launch of WPI in Hyderabad in January 2012.
There is a mixed reaction from city's minority leaders towards the launch of Jamaat-e-Islami-supported Welfare Party of India (WPI), whose district office was inaugurated in the city on Saturday, a month before the formal state-wide launch of WPI in Hyderabad in January 2012.
Mr Mustafa Farooq, WPI national president, inaugurated the WPI office in LB Nagar area in the city, making Warangal the second district after Kurnool to have a party office in the state.
According to one section of minority leaders, the association of a religious organisation (read Jamaat-e-Islami Hind) with WPI would send a wrong signal for the new political party as it intends to have a support base comprising Muslims, Dalits, tribals and backward classes.
“A religious head from an organisation like Jamaat-e-Islami Hind should not have any link with a political party like WPI as it would attract a communal party tag,” said minority leader and TRS ex-corporator from the city, Mr Abu Bakr.
However, another section of minority leaders like Mr Habib Khan, ex zilla parishad co-option member, welcomed launch of a minority and other disadvantaged sections - centric new party as it would help emerging leaders from Muslims a new platform.
“In mainstream political parties like Congress and TD, Muslim leadership is only namesake with no independent identity of their own. Hence, the issues affecting the minority and other downtrodden communities get sidelined,” said Mr Habib, while downplaying importance of Hyderabad-centric All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) as it has no strong presence in Telangana districts.
Interestingly, the inauguration of WPI’s district unit office by its national president Mr Farooq on Saturday also coincided with the arrival of Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umri, national president of Jamaat-e-Islami-Hind to the city but both attended separate events and did not address from one common platform.
Mr K. Nisar Ahmed, who is the newly-appointed convenor of district unit WPI and president of Madrasi Masjid committee in the city, explains this, saying that notwithstanding Jamaat-e-Islami-Hind’s support to the new political party, they would have an independent style of functioning.
“I never had any connection with Jamaat-e-Islami before I was appointed as convenor of WPI’s district unit,” said Mr Nisar Ahmed, adding that WPI is not just ‘minority-centric but would equally take all pro-Dalit, tribal and BC issues’.
Mr Nisar Ahmed points this out with the appointment of a non-Muslim as WPI’s state convenor in Karnataka.
Meanwhile, with both Jamaat-e-Islami and the newly-launched WPI are known to have a pro-statehood stance, minority observers expect it to check spread of MIM in Telangana districts following the latter’s perceived united state stance.
According to a rough estimate, Muslim voters comprise 8 per cent in Warangal and 10-12 per cent in other north Telangana districts like Adilabad, Karimnagar and Nizamabad.