MUMBAI: Maharashtra Muslim Sangh, an umbrella organisation of around 40 Muslim NGOs, has snapped its ties with the
BJP and joined hands with Prakash Ambedkar-led
Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh
to support secular parties in the next
Lok Sabha
and assembly elections. The Muslim outfit had backed the BJP in the 2014 assembly elections.
"Before we declared our support to the BJP, we had given it our charter of demands. The party included some of our demands in its manifesto and promised it would engage our members while implementing its agenda," said the Sangh's president, Fakir Mohammed Thakur. He added that senior BJP leader Madhav Bhandari tried his best to initiate a dialogue between the Muslim Sangh and the BJP but the BJP's state leadership did not show much interest.
"We are disillusioned and now will create a joint front with the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh of Prakash Ambdekar who is also Dr B R Ambedkar's grandson," said Thakur.
Thakur and other Sangh members had campaigned for the BJP in 2014 assembly elections and in several civic elections in Maharashtra. He claimed BJP got around 14% of Muslim votes because of aggressive campaigning by Muslim Sangh activists.
On Thursday Thakur, along with other members, met Ambdekar and discussed their future course. Ambdekar is learnt to have told Thakur that they would back a Congress-led alliance to stop
saffron
parties from returning to power.