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Muslim Leadership within Gujarat’s Congress in the 1980S

Much literature covers how the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India impacted on the political marginalisation of Muslims, while it has not been examined in sufficient depth how the internal dynamics of Congress contributed to this decline in Muslim nominations for elections. This article examines the Congress party’s organisational circumstances that affected Muslims’ electoral representation in 1980s Gujarat. It demonstrates that, along with the influence of competing Hindutva forces, the ongoing ‘deinstitutionalisation’ of the Congress party also damaged the political representation of Muslims. Interview accounts and archival documents indicate how factional fighting within Congress subverted the faction-like consolidation of the Muslim leaders’ negotiation power. The article argues that despite vertical and dyadic ties with Hindu leaders inside the party, Muslim Congressmen could not attain unified leadership to generate sufficient pressure on the party to nominate Muslims for elections.