BENGALURU: Buoyed by the favourable response during the recent Vistarak (outreach) programme, BJP is planning to organise a mega rally of Muslims to draw the minority community to the party in a big way.BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa on Friday asked state BJP Minority Morcha president Abdul Azeem to start preparations for the rally with a turnout of at least 25,000 people from the Muslim community. The rally will be addressed by Muslim ministers in the Union cabinet, Yeddyurappa said while addressing the gathering at a function to induct many Muslim youths to the party.
Abdul Wajid, a journalist, Mohammed Afzal, a civic engineer, Shafakath Ali Khan, a builder, and community leaders Ilyas Pasha, Nayaz Ali Khan, Salman Ahmed, Anwaruddin, Mohammed Ali were among the scores of Muslim youths who joined the party on Friday.Citing BJP’s huge success in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, Yeddyurappa said it was made possible because of the huge support from the Muslim community as well, especially in constituencies which had overwhelming presence of the community. Yeddyurappa expressed confidence that the party’s stand against triple talaq, which was upheld by the Supreme Court, and the Modi government’s ‘Sab Ka Saath Sab Ka Vikas’ principle will help BJP draw Muslims to the party ahead of the Assembly election in Karnataka.
He appealed to the Muslim youth to see through the vote bank politics of Congress and said the grand old party which ruled the country for many decades has ensured Muslims remained in ghettos without basic amenities and good education as the party was keen to retain them as mere vote banks.Abdul Azeem said that through its appeasement policy, Congress has tried to exploit the minority community by instilling a sense of fear among them against BJP by projecting the latter as anti-Muslim. “We have been fooled by Congress over the years by spreading falsehood and igniting communal enmity. Muslims are slowly realising the reality and embracing BJP.” Referring to huge encroachment of Wakf properties in the state by influential leaders within the community, Azeem said BJP will clear the encroachments on about 2 lakh acres if voted to power in the next election. The recovered land could be used for welfare programmes of the community, he added.