MMK wants to contest in 5 Assembly seats: Jawahirullah

Manithaneya Makkal Katchi president M.H. Jawahirullah said on Sunday that the party wanted to contest in five Assembly seats as a part of the DMK-led alliance. He also urged other alliance partners to give Muslims more representation while distributing tickets to candidates. The MMK had contested in two Assembly seats — Manapparai and Papanasam — in 2021 and won both as a part of the DMK alliance.

Speaking to journalists after the party’s special general body meeting in Chennai, Mr. Jawahirullah said the demand for “share in power”, which was being consistently being made by the Congress party in Tamil Nadu, “will not be applicable to Tamil Nadu”.

“We also resolved (in the special general body meeting) to seek five Assembly constituencies for the MMK as a part of the DMK alliance,” he said, and appealed to the MMK cadre to ensure a “Dravidian model 2.0” government is installed in Tamil Nadu.

“The present government must continue and Dravidian model 2.0 must blossom in Tamil Nadu. The DMK government has satisfied many of our long standing demands: Chief Minister M.K. Stalin met the minorities communities — Christians and Muslims — at the Secretariat and has taken a number of steps to resolve their issues. Minority students were given an education loan of ₹5 lakh and teachers working in minority-run institutions were given recognition. Graveyards for Muslims and Christians have been set up in corporations. The mandate to obtain ‘No Objection Certificate’ to build mosques and churches has been done away with,” he said.

Mr. Jawahirullah added: “At a time when the representation of Muslims (in Parliament and Assemblies) has reduced in India, the political parties in the alliance should give appropriate representation to Muslims.”