By Kanupriya Kapoor and Fergus Jensen

JAKARTA (Reuters) – A former Indonesian education minister backed by the main opposition party has quietly made gains in the race to become the capital’s governor by courting disaffected Muslim voters while acrimony over a blasphemy trial occupies his rivals.

Anies Baswedan poses a late but serious challenge in Wednesday’s vote for governor of Jakarta, a post that can be a stepping stone to the presidency of a country with the world’s largest Muslim population.

Campaigning for the election has raised the sensitive issue of religion in politics of a country with a state ideology that enshrines religious diversity in an officially secular system.

Officials from the Gerindra party backing Baswedan dismiss any suggestion he has played a religious card, while acknowledging he has appealed to voters, who happen to be Muslim, in slums where the incumbent, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, has raised anger with forced evictions to combat flooding.

“Anies has made sure he heard the voices of the victims of forced evictions who were mainly Muslim,” said Arif Poyuono, a senior Gerindra official, referring to Baswedan by his first name.

Baswedan’s popularity has spiked since the head of the party, Prabowo Subianto, who narrowly lost the 2014 presidential election, started campaigning on his behalf, promising a comeback to the national stage in 2019, Poyuono said.

The Jakarta poll is being widely seen as a proxy battle for the 2019 presidential election.

Purnama, Jakarta’s first ethnic Chinese and Christian governor, has won credit for cutting red tape and improving the performance of the bureaucracy. He has the backing of President Joko Widodo’s party, and is standing again.

The third contender is Agus Yudhoyono, the son of former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

But the election has been overshawdowed by Purnama’s trial on blasphemy charges stemming from an accusation that he insulted the Koran in comments about how people vote.

MORE:    http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/indonesia-opposition-backed-candidate-may-be-dark-horse-in-jakarta-poll/42956308