Yahya Bukhari, brother of Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid.

In election time, it isn't unusual for political parties like the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the BSP to seek endorsements from Islamic clerics, as part of their strategy to garner Muslim votes. But it is an exercise conducted with some discretion, given the dubious ethics of mixing religion with politics. But this time, the Modi factor has led the non-BJP parties to a higher pitch of deal-making with these clerics and religious leaders, often with little regard for their track record.Perhaps the 'deal' that came in for the greatest criticism was a meeting between Sonia Gandhi and the Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid because of his controversial views, notably his endorsement of murderous fatwas against Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasreen. Even today his brother Tariq Bukhari, who acts as the Imam's spokesperson says Rushdie and Taslima too had taken an extreme position in their writings and no Muslim can tolerate an attack on Prophet Muhammad.The backlash against the Sonia-Bukhari meeting led to the Congress downplaying it, saying its part of a routine series of meetings with community leaders.But the Imam's brother says the meeting was held only after a preliminary series of meetings between the Imam's representatives and Sonia Gandhi's political secretary, Ahmed Patel a month ago. At these meetings, Tariq Bukhari claims Patel accepted a series of demands the Imam had set in exchange for his support, especially "speedy trials of Muslim men who are arrested, and moreover the people who are honorably discharged, those who arrested them should be made accountable for it."He said those meetings set the stage for a meeting on April 2nd at 10 Janpath, Mrs Gandhi's residence, between a six member delegation led by the Imam, and from the Congress, Sonia Gandhi and Ahmed Patel, where the Imam's support to the Congress was formalised.Tariq Bukhari claims its part of the Imam's attempts to strike similar agreements with parties across the country that they consider secular, and excluding those they don't. They have backed Mamata Bannerjee, despite her once being a part of the NDA, because as Tariq says, "when I went to Bengal she said publicly that I won't go with NDA." When asked why they didn't back the BSP, he said that the same question of NDA support was asked of them as well. "When we came to the point that will the BSP and Mayawati go with the NDA, they said they will answer after asking madam. But we didn't get any answer.Some say this is hypocritical since the Imam had supported the Vajpayee-led NDA in 2004. But Tariq disagrees, saying "Mr Vajpayee gave a statement that we want to come close to Muslims. As a reaction Imam Sahab said if the BJP changes its line, then they are worthy of support."But the Imam's own brother Yahya Bukhari, now estranged, says that the Imam's deals with the Congress and other parties are dubious, and that he will expose them in a few days.More to the point, does the Imam have any political influence over Muslim voters, in Delhi or elsewhere? The local MLA from the Jama Masjid area, Shoaib Iqbal says he doesn't. He says he has been a fierce critic of the Imam for years, and yet he has won the Assembly seat four times in a row. "If the Imam can't defeat me in his own backyard, then what votes can he mobilise outside Delhi?" asks Iqbal.The other Muslim power centre that political managers visit in election time is the venerable Jamiat Ulema e Hind, which claims a nationwide membership of over a crore, as well as control over the influential Darul Uloom seminary in Deoband, Uttar Pradesh. But as with the Shahi Imam, its influence is undermined by a similar malaise of family factions, orthodox agendas, and shifting loyalties.The Jamiat is locked in a power struggle between Maulana Arshad Madani, its president, and his increasingly ambitious nephew Mahmood.Madani senior, who's been close to Congress and the Samajwadi party, seems to be now distancing himself given the sense of disillusionment amongst Muslims for these parties. Instead, he has couched his support for those parties in an open-ended appeal, saying, "I want to tell that every secular person, Hindus or Muslims that they should vote for Congress or for any party that can defeat the BJP."Mahmood Madani, who unlike his uncle has been in formal politics, is even more ambiguous, his standing diminished after a statement in defense of Narendra Modi two years ago.

Today Mahmood claims he is not backing any party but is against the BJP. His stand seems based less on principle, more because they didn't approach him. He says the "BJP doesn't need Muslim votes. They maybe saying they do, but they don't. Why will Muslims go with them when they don't need them?"Former MP and Editor of Urdu newspaper Nai Duniya, Shahid Siddiqui strongly criticised this practise of seeking endorsements from clerics. He says, "After Independence most of the so called secular parties in order to prove that they are secular get hold of some Muslim-looking faces. A Muslim who doesn't have a beard, who doesn't wear a cap is not good enough for them. They ask for people who are wearing a cap as they have to look Muslim. They get hold of them and use them to make an appeal to the Muslims. In that process they have imposed a communal leadership on Muslims because the secular Muslim asks questions of bread, jobs, education based on real concerns."