The meeting was arranged at the instance of Sonia Gandhi's political advisor Ahmed Patel, the first meeting between Imam Bukhari and Sonia Gandhi in the last 30 years.
In 1980, the then prime minister Indira Gandhi had sought Bukhari's father late Imam Syed Abdullah Bukhari's support for the Congress, but since then the Bukharis have stayed away from the Congress.
Syed Ahmed Bukhari is going to issue an appeal soon asking Muslims not to split the secular vote. Most of the Muslim voters have been supporting Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party and Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi NCR and large parts of Uttar Pradesh.
