22 September,2025 08:00 AM IST | Mumbai | Jyoti Punwani
Women Shiv Sena workers perform aarti for the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader
I didn't win only because of Muslim votes. The BJP knows that, and they are scared that if I could win in a predominantly Hindu constituency, so could other Muslims. That's a problem for them because they don't give tickets to Muslims," said Versova Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Haroon Khan, who defeated two-time BJP MLA Bharati Lavekar, securing 44 per cent of the vote share in his electoral debut in last year's Assembly polls.
Khan, 63, who earned overnight fame as the only Muslim to have been given a ticket by Uddhav Thackeray for the Assembly polls, with both Devendra Fadnavis and Asaduddin Owaisi mentioning him in their campaign speeches, is once again in the spotlight. Last week, Mumbai BJP chief Ameet Satam, addressing a party meet, warned that only a BJP victory in the forthcoming BMC polls could prevent "a Haroon Khan being elected in every ward" and "a Khan becoming mayor" of Mumbai. The "Malwani-Versova model" (both Assembly constituencies elected Muslim MLAs) would result in "changing the colour of the city," said Satam.
"Sikander Bakht was a founding member of the BJP," Khan told mid-day, "and remained in the party till he died. Najma Heptulla, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, and Shahnawaz Husain - all of them have been in Narendra Modi's cabinet. Arif Mohammed Khan is the governor of Bihar. All these Muslims didn't change the colour of their constituencies, but I, who belong to the original Hindutva party of Balasaheb Thackeray, will make my constituency green?"
Khan, who joined the Shiv Sena 35 years ago, expressed surprise that his "friend" had made these remarks about him. "I know Ameet Satam from when he was not even a corporator. I helped him when he stood for MLA from Andheri West in 2014 and 2019, as we were both part of the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance. He knows I was shakha pramukh for 17 years, and how many temples I had renovated when my wife was a corporator from 2017 onwards."
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Interestingly, Khan's voters don't quite see him the way Satam does. This reporter followed Khan's campaign last year to see how Hindu voters would react to a Muslim candidate, only to discover that the constituency didn't see Khan as a Muslim, but as a veteran Shiv Sainik. "Balasaheb [Thackeray] himself had chosen him as shakha pramukh," recounted women waiting to perform Khan's aarti. Khan himself performed aarti inside a temple as his campaign drew to an end.
With his long record as shakha pramukh and then up-vibhag pramukh, Khan was expected to get the Sena ticket for the 2017 BMC elections. But the ward was reserved for women, and his wife, Shaheda, got it. She won, but the voters credited him with the work done there, be it building toilets, roads or renovating temples.
Asked about being the Sena (UBT)'s only Muslim candidate, Khan had described himself to this reporter as "just a Shiv Sainik." In the just-concluded Ganeshotsav, Khan's was a prominent face at Ganpati mandals in his constituency.
For the BJP, however, he has always been only a Muslim. A North Indian doctor in Khan's constituency recounted how BJP members had objected when Khan's name had been proposed as trustee of a new temple. Khan, however, had silenced them by reciting Sanskrit shlokas and quoting from the Mahabharat to argue that he was a fit candidate for trustee. But he didn't get the post.
Satam's remarks, said Khan, show that the BJP wants to fight the BMC polls on the âHindu-Muslim' plank. "The main issue should be Mumbai's vikas. Because you haven't done any vikas, you talk about green and saffron colours. I'd like to tell Satam that my party's flag is saffron, and my country's flag is saffron, green, white, and blue. I represent all these colours."
