NEW DELHI: Days, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested to BJP workers to focus on weaker sections in communities other than Hindus, the party's minority wing, has prepared a blueprint to reach out to Pasmanda Muslims, among the most backwards in the community.
The BJP's minority morcha head Jamal Siddiqui, himself a Pasmanda Muslim, said the party's outreach activities for them are based broadly on two aspects -- ensuring they get the benefits of the Modi government's welfare schemes, and they are represented in party unit in the districts where they are in majority.
"Our party workers especially from minority morcha will reach out to Pasmanda Muslims across the country for this," he told PTI.
He said a majority of office-bearers in BJP's minority wing are from different sections of the Pasmanda community.
Another party leader said the BJP is also planning to hail national heroes from the community such as 1965 war hero and Param Vir Chakra recipient Abdul Hameed, an Idrisi by caste, and organise functions on their birth anniversaries.
Pasmandas constitute more than 70 per cent of the total Muslim population and the BJP aims to reach out to them as it prepares for various state elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
As things stand, Muslim leaders in various parties come from among Ashrafs which comprise Syeds, Mughals and Pathans (akin to upper castes in Hindus).
Among the Pasmandas are Malik (Teli), Momin Ansar (weavers), Qureshi (butchers), Mansoori (those who make quilts and mattresses), Idrisi (tailors), Saifi (iron smith), Salmani (barbers) and Hawari (washermen).
At the BJP's national executive in Hyderabad last week, Modi had suggested that party workers should reach out to downtrodden sections among minorities such Pasmanda Muslims.
He made these remarks while intervening during the BJP's Uttar Pradesh unit chief Swatantra Dev Singh's presentation on the recent victory in Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha bypolls -- both Samajwadi Party bastions with numerically dominant Muslim population.
The new Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh has appointed Danish Ansari, a Pasmanda Muslim from Ballia in east UP, as minister of state for minority affairs.