Maharashtra Minister Mahadev Jankar said Tuesday voters from the Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) would be the deciding factors in the 2019 polls.
He said OBCs among Muslims are not getting benefits available to their counterparts in the Hindu community.
The minister for animal husbandry was addressing a gathering at the All India Muslim OBC Conference here.
"Both communities need to sit together and come out with a solution because the OBCs and Dalits together would be the deciding factors in the 2019 elections in India and in Maharashtra (where assembly polls are due next year)," he said.
Speaking at the meet, former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal said the country was witnessing an "undeclared emergency".
"The upcoming elections are going to be crucial. If the current dispensation manages to win the elections, they would end democracy. What is happening today is something the country has never seen before," he said.
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"Today the Constitution has gone in wrong hands. Hence, from now on like-minded parties must start preparing for elections," the senior NCP leader added.
The All India Muslim OBC Conference - that saw the presence of top community leaders - declared that they would resist and prevent any move to change the Constitution or tamper with its basic structure.
Shabbir Ahmed Ansari, president, All India Muslim OBC Organisation, said the threat to Constitution is not a new phenomenon.
"Many of the total 123 amendments done to the Constitution of India have hit the basic spirit and essence of the religious equality and have been done with the intention to help the government in power or to support a particular segment of the people," he said.
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