NEW DELHI: The BJP has not fielded a single Muslim candidate in the Gujarat assembly elections, yet it appears more desperate than ever to win over Muslim voters. How? The saffron party is said to have recruited thousands of Muslim leaders and activists from various minority fronts to help it with campaigning. They are going all-out in their statewide campaign to win over Muslim votes, especially Pasmanda Muslim voters.
Several Pasmanda community members are among the nearly 5,000 prominent and influential Muslim leaders and workers, according to BJP sources, who are running aggressive election campaigns in all assembly districts where minority voters have been influencing the results of elections until 2017.
A BJP source says there are 27 assembly segments in Gujarat where Muslim voters have a significant impact on the outcome of the assembly elections. The party, therefore, has concentrated its strategy on these assembly segments by using Muslim community leaders and workers to conduct door-to -door campaigning in every Muslim-dominated neighborhood.
“Their task is to inform the Muslim voters about the welfare schemes launched for the state’s Muslims and other minorities by the BJP government,’’ said a party source. The Muslim leaders are also attempting to dispel “doubts and misconceptions” among community voters.
Party sources said a few days ago, up to 250 BJP Muslim Morcha officials from Maharashtra joined the party’s campaigning in Gujarat’s Muslim neighbourhoods, which have previously been Congress’ strongholds. Muslim voters’ comments have been encouraging. One of the Muslim leaders of the UP BJP Minority Morcha said, “A strong trust for the Modi governance is palpable across the state.”
In Gujarat, there are 58, 46,761 Muslims out of the total population of 6,04,39,692, or around 9.67% of the population overall, according to government statistics. Jamal Siddiqui, national president of the BJP Minority Morcha, responded to a question from this newspaper by saying, “BJP is now not ‘untouchable’ to the Muslim or any other minority community.
In comparison to the 2017 assembly election and the 2019 local government election, we are hopeful of receiving more Muslim community votes this time.’’ He said Muslim leaders of Gujarat Minority Morcha are working hard to achieve party candidates’ victories in all seats with a majority-minority population in 2022.
The national general secretary of the Gujarat BJP Minority Morcha, Dr Sufi MK Chishty, also asserted that in the past 24 years, Muslims in the state have seen peace and prosperity. “They cannot be fooled by any other party against the BJP,” he said, pointing out that 200 Muslim candidates from the BJP were elected in the recent civic elections in Gujarat from a variety of civic wards with Muslim majority. This demonstrates how Muslim voters are increasingly trusting the BJP leadership,’’ said Dr Chishty.