When Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about reaching out to marginalised sections of minorities at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National Working Committee meeting in Hyderabad, it was not without a vision.
Ahead of the 2024 general elections, the BJP is not just wooing the majority community, but is also reaching out to the minority community.
Starting August 7, the BJP Minority Morcha will reach out to families in Muslim-dominated areas in Uttar Pradesh and to take out Tiranga Yatras under the Har Ghar Tiranga campaign.
Sources suggest the BJP aims to hoist the Indian Tricolour atop most of the houses belonging to the minority community between August 13 and 15.
WORK ON GROUND
The top leadership of the UP BJP is now focussing on bringing minorities, who were earlier hesitant to vote for the saffron camp due to its hardliner Hindutva style of politics, to its fold.
Members of the minority community are being told about the development schemes run by the State and the Centre governments.
The BJP leaders will not just explain how the Modi and Yogi governments are benefiting the community, but will tell how they safeguarded the community from riots, which used to happen in the previous regimes. Members of the community will also be told about how the government has been ensuring their participation and representation at every level.
Apart from the Har Ghar Tiranga campaign, a special training camp has been organised for members of the BJP Minority Morcha from August 27-29, in which Muslims leaders and state-level members of the party will take part.
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As part of their minority reachout, UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya has been asking the opposition parties about what they did for the Pasmanda (backward) Muslims when they were in power.
Apart from this, the Yogi 2.0 government has also appointed Javed Ansari as the chairman of UP Board of Madarsa Education, while Chaudhary Kafil-Ul-Wara, hailing from the weaver community, has been appointed as the chairman of UP Urdu Akademi. Also, BJYM leader Danish Ansari has been appointed as the State Minister for Minority Affairs in the Yogi 2.0 government.
‘FEELING IGNORED’
Anees Mansoori, chief of Pasmanda Muslim Society, while speaking exclusively to News18, had alleged that the opposition parties have failed to look at the marginalised sections of Muslims.
Mansoori, who has been a former state minister, told News18, “This community will go towards whoever talks about the development of Pasmanda Muslims. For the past 15 years, I have been working to organise the Pasmanda Muslim society, seeking their betterment. I welcome the concern shown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his working committee meeting in Hyderabad. PM Modi should also do something for the community. We are ready to take a leap towards PM Modi, if he takes a step towards our community.”
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Also, the lone Muslim Minister in the Yogi 2.0 Government, Danish Azad Ansari, had stated that it was a myth created by opposition parties that Muslims don’t vote for the BJP. “Minorities have seen that they are getting the benefits of various government schemes, be it free ration or housing or toilet, without any kind of bias and this has increased their faith in the BJP,” Ansari had told News18.
The BJP recently won the by-elections held in Rampur and Azamgarh parliamentary constituencies. Both these constituencies were considered strongholds of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and have a large number of Muslim voters.
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