Abstract
This paper deals with patronage and piety politics in local election by comparing two cases of the 2017 local election in Central Java Province. It focuses on the role of and dilemma faced by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest Indonesia’s Muslim organization, in electoral competition in Indonesia. This article confirms previous scholarly works on the widespread of patronage distribution in and the impact of rising religious conservatism to electoral competition. However, this paper shows both piety and patronage politics are neither necessarily negative for maintaining oligarchic rule nor bad for provoking intolerance and violence. The case of Nahdlatul Ulama reveals that Islamic organisation in Indonesia is not immune from electoral politics and due to institutional weaknesses of most of political parties in Indonesia, it will likely remains an important political player for mobilising support in upcoming elections, both at local and national level.
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