While the Aam Aadmi Party spares no effort in projecting itself as a “Hindu party”, it appears to be gaining slivers of support from Gujarat’s Muslims.

Experts explained this as realpolitik — a realisation among Muslims that the party has a shot at victory in places where the Congress is a weak opponent to the BJP despite the main Opposition party’s greater cadre base compared with the AAP’s.

Conversations this newspaper had with voters in the eastern edge of Saurashtra as well as central Gujarat — considered the BJP’s stronghold — threw up a mix of responses.

Muslims, 9.7 per cent of the state’s population, are considered a Congress vote bank. However, a large number of Muslim voters expressed an affinity with or interest in the AAP, irrespective of its stand on what may be deemed litmus tests of secularism.

The AAP has been silent on the release of the Bilkis Bano convicts, advocated Hindu deities’ images on currency, and embraced a BJP turncoat accused of having instigated the flogging of Muslims in Kheda.

The commonest reason the Muslim voters gave was that the AAP had a better chance of victory than the Congress, which has been out of power in Gujarat for 27 years.

Many Hindu and Muslim respondents, who expressed dissatisfaction with the BJP government’s performance, also enquired if an alliance was possible between the two Opposition parties.

Although the Congress has formally ruled out this possibility, there’s word about local quid pro quo between the two parties in some seats.

Ahmedabad-based sociologist Achyut Yagnik told The Telegraph: “In some areas near Surat, and in Saurashtra where the AAP has increased its influence, the Congress has no hope of winning. The AAP is, however, organisationally much weaker than the BJP. After a long time, there is a three-cornered contest where the AAP has emerged as an alternative. The Gujarat Congress now has a weak leadership compared with the past, although the party retains its traditionally strong organisation.”

Among the voters this newspaper interacted with, Congress supporters were fewer in number but more vocal than the rest.

Unlike the AAP, which appeared to have more acceptance in urban pockets and some tribal areas in Dahod, Congress cadres were present everywhere.

In 2017, the BJP got 49.1 per cent of the vote and the Congress 41.4 per cent.

Even at its lowest ebb — in the three-cornered 1990 polls when the Janata Dal became the single largest party — the Congress got 30.7 per cent of the vote.

Yagnik said the high acceptance of Hindutva among the urban middle class in the state was an open secret, something the Muslims too were aware of. So, even a party with less-than-ideal secular credentials could become a viable alternative for them.

Ajaz Shaikh, a research associate with the public systems group of IIM Ahmedabad — whose work focuses on slums in the city — said: “Muslims have worked hard every time for the Congress to win, especially in the urban areas. But this has not yielded results. With the AAP, they feel they can defeat the BJP.

“Interactions (between) Muslims and Hindus (happen) through business. There is a middle-class Hindu discourse about the AAP as an alternative that the Muslims too have caught on to. Also, they have seen AAP victories take place in Punjab and Delhi against BJP waves.”

Shaikh said the Muslims, most of whom are poor, expect to benefit from the potential improvements in schools that the AAP has promised in line with what it has done in Delhi.

“Many Muslims are now simply unable to afford a good education for their kids,” he added.