BJP meet aims to woo minority votes

PATNA: Starting with Bihar, the BJP has set itself on wooing minority sections by organizing their state-level conference, specially of Muslims, who identify with Urdu language, constitute the biggest segment, and also account for around 17 per cent of the state’s population.

The state conference is slated for July 14 here at Shri Krishna Memorial Hall. State BJP minority front president Abdul Rehman said, “It is largely believed that Muslims are not inclined towards the BJP. We want to end this myth. The party’s Central leadership is also favourably inclined towards it.”

Party’s national spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Hussain would participate, and the consent of the party’s in-charge of Bihar affairs Anant Kumar is being sought. Obviously, the bid of the state BJP for image makeover is expected to go well with the party’s national president Nitin Gadkari, whose major assignment is ensuring the success of the party in the forthcoming assembly elections. As a part of the same, the Central leadership held its two-day National Executive meet here, beginning June 12.

While the motions of the meet were gone through, the likely election tour of Gujarat CM Narendra Modi brought the JD(U)-BJP alliance almost to breaking point, as CM Nitish Kumar gave overt signals that he was not favourably inclined towards Modi’s expected tour. In this context, the state BJP minority front’s state conference has acquired an added significance.

“We want to clarify to all that the BJP is the party of all sections and communities, including Muslims,” said Rehman, adding: “The Congress, RJD and similar other parties brand the BJP as a communal party, and then seek the votes of Muslims. But Muslims think otherwise. The Sachar and Ranganath Mishra Committee recommendations have shown that the condition of Muslims, in general, is worse than that of Dalits.

These parties should be held responsible for it, because they ruled the state for most of the period. The NDA is seeking votes of Muslims on the basis of work that its government has done for them.” Rhetorics apart, state BJP vice-president and spokesman Sanjay Mayukh said that the exact number of Muslims enrolled in the party could not be known, but Rehman put the number at around one lakh, and also said that the plan was to mobilize 10,000 of them for the July 14 conference.

“But all of them might not come,” he said, citing various factors, and also added that the campaign of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad against the grant of land to AMU Extension Centre at Kishanganj by the Nitish Kumar government and against Bangla infiltration was no obstacle.
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