But with the panchayat polls round the corner, the discussion was mostly on politics.

Rajya Sabha MP Mahmood Madani, who is also the general secretary of the Jamiat, urged the community to present a common front during the panchayat polls .

The Jamiat-backed People’s Democratic Conference will be fielding 4,000 candidates in the panchayat polls. The leaders stressed on the need to “unite and occupy positions of power” to further their progress and demanded immediate implementation of the recommendations of the Sachar panel.

The state chief of Jamiat, Siddiqullah Chowdhury, said the PDC is open to an alliance with most political parties to bring “the downfall of the ruling CPM government.”

“Unless the CPM is ousted, prosperity and security will not return to the state. Since no single party is going to get a two-thirds majority in the next Assembly elections, we will be joining the alliance opposed to the incumbent regime,” Chowdhury said.

The Jamiat leaders also rubbished claims that the 89-year-old organisation has split.

“There are some people who are not part of the Jamiat who are saying these things. As far as we know, no split has taken place,” they said.

Earlier this month, it was reported that the Jamiat had been split following the expulsion of then-president Arshad Madani for involvement in “anti-Jamiat” activities.

Prior to the national convention on April 5 in New Delhi, Arshad Madani had formed a “Jamiat Executive Committee” comprising his loyalists, but 14 state units voted overwhelmingly in favour of Qari Mohammad Islam as president and Arshad’s nephew Mahmood Madani as the general secretary.

“Leftists are pseudo-secular”
Kolkata: Accusing the West Bengal government of doing little for the Muslims, the Jamiat-Ulema-i- Hind said on Thursday that the Leftists who claimed to champion the cause of the minority community were pseudo secular.

“If the condition of Muslims are bad in India, it is worst in West Bengal where a Left government is ruling.