India, Oct. 12 -- In a prayer meet early on Saturday for the pigeons that he said had succumbed after the ban on kabutarkhanas in July, Jain muni Nilesh Chandra Vijay-who had previously threatened to take up arms for the cause of pigeon-feeding-announced plans to launch a political party to contest the upcoming BMC elections. To be named 'Shanti Doot Jankalyan Party' and have a pigeon as its symbol, the party's contestants will stand on the pressing issue of protecting animals: pigeons, cows and others.

The announcement comes on the heels of the Jain community's discontent with the BJP, as despite backtracking on its own initial order to shut down all kabutarkhanas in the city, it followed a Bombay high court diktat on the same. The case...