Hindu Rashtra Sena

All India Majlis-e- Ittehad-ul Muslimeen

HRS

AIMIM

Hadapsar

flashpoint

Mohsin Sheikh

leader

Kondhwa

Mohammedwadi

Manjari

Mundhwa

chief

worker

Sarfaraz Shaikh

president

Digambar Gentyal

Facebook

Lok Sabha

Bharatiya Janata Party

Narendra Modi

HRS party

Congress

NCP spokesperson

Mohan Joshi

Babasaheb Ambedkar

king

Akbaruddin

Madhya Pradesh

Chhattisgarh

Tamil Nadu

Nazar Khan

Communal spirits will be stoked by theandas they vie for votes in the forthcoming election.The city is still shaking off the tension fomented by the communal riots of June, but the Assembly polls are threatening to stir up a hornet’s nest, with two radical groups — Hindu Rashtra Sena () and All India Majlis-e- Ittehad-ul Muslimeen () — deciding not only to contest the elections but also field a candidate each at, theof the summer rampage that left 28-year-olddead.With theirDhananjay Desai behind bars for his alleged role in stoking the mob hysteria that took Sheikh’s life, HRS members have decided to contest the elections for the first time since the group registered itself as a political party in 2009. There is talk that they are likely to field Desai’s wife as the candidate from Hadapsar constituency, which includes, Hadapsar,andSimilarly, having announced his party’s plan to fight it out in Maharashtra’s Assembly election, AIMIMAsaduddin Owaisi is fielding about 30 candidates in the state. The party has picked socialSalim Mulla as its candidate from Hadapsar, informed AIMIM party Pune president“We are holding a meeting with our chief this evening to finalise the candidates,” he told Mirror on Tuesday from Hyderabad.In fact, besides Hadapsar, the two groups are likely to lock horns in several other constituencies. So far, AIMIM has talked of candidates from Byculla, Mankhurd, Jogeshwari, Kurla, Malad and Andheri in Mumbai, as well as Mumbra, Malegaon, Nanded, Aurangabad, Bhiwandi and Solapur, elsewhere in the state. The party is riding on the slogan: “Ab ki baar MIM aamdar” (MIM MLA in Maharashtra this time).Gearing up for the campaign, HRSfor Ahmednagar district,, told Mirror, “We will be fielding candidates in 8-10 places. Besides Hadapsar in Pune, we are looking at Vile Parle in Mumbai, Jamkhed and Rahuri in Ahmednagar, Jalgaon and Aurangabad, among others.” He added that HRS is working towards contesting the elections on its own, with no alliances on its anvil yet.While Desai was pinned for working intensely on the minds of rural youth on the fringes of Pune prior to the June mob attack, his party men are now scouting for youngsters and using social media to do the wooing.pages dedicated to individual cities or even localities identified as chosen constituencies have been floated. The Right wing group’s stated goal is “to make Hindus very strong and sensitise them about the nation and their religion, saving the country from Islamic terrorism and Christian conversions”.“During theelections, we supported the(BJP) and NDA coalition led by. In the absence of Bhai (Desai), we are taking extra efforts to attract voters. We have launched membership drives in several parts of the state. Also HRS’ IT cell is active on Facebook, Twitter and blogs to garner interest and support,” anworker informed. Gentyal also pointed out, “We are not poaching candidates from other parties. We are looking for apolitical candidates, new to electoral campaigns. Criteria include a clean record and being incorrupt, inclined to working for social causes and primarily a Hindutvawadi.”AIMIM’s entry into Assembly polls has shaken the Congress-NationalistParty (NCP) alliance, given their dependence on the minority vote-bank. Of course, officially they are not betraying their nervousness. “Going by the results of the by-polls on Tuesday, we have seen that people have defeated communal forces,” pointed outNawab Malik. Senior Congress leadersaid, “Maharashtra is a progressive state. It is the land of reformist leaders like Shahu Maharaj, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, Drand the great visionaryChhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. There is no place for extremism and the people of Maharashtra will show extremists their place.”While Owaisi’s brotherhas been branded for hate-mongering in several cases across the country, Pune city police last month filed a 650-page charge-sheet against Desai and 20 others. The document accused Desai of instigating his workers to launch a series of violent protests following objectionable posts against Hindu gods, besides other figures revered in Maharashtra — Chhatrapati Shivaji and Bal Thackeray. In the ensuing riots, 28-year-old techie, Mohsin Sheikh (who belonged to Solapur) was killed. The incident brought 34-year-old Desai, a Vile Parle resident who started HRS when he was 14, into national reckoning and locally his popularity grew. Though headquartered in Maharashtra, HRS has sprouted arms in Gujarat, Delhi,, Rajasthan,, Karnataka, Kerala and Assam. In Pune district, it has marked its presence in 20 locations, four of which are in the city.“Both these parties claim to be championing the cause of the people of their respective religions but not the whole community. After the violence we saw in June, peace has returned to the area with great difficulty. I fear the participation of such parties in the forthcoming Assembly election will wreck our harmony,” observed, a resident of Hadapsar. Another resident, Mangala Shinde from Manjari, said, “Political parties divide people on grounds of religion. We have lived in peace for years. After the murder of a Muslim youth in Unnatinagar, Hadapsar, there was tension in the area for so many days. I hope that with the entry of these two parties, tension does not flare up again.”