Political ploy: BJP knocks on the Muslim door

Party is trying to woo Muslim vote bank in UP and Lucknow.


Uzair Rizvi April 20, 2014
In this photograph taken on April 9, 2014, Chief Minister of the western Indian state of Gujarat and Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi (C) is showered with flower petals during his roadshow in Vadodara, some 110 kms from Ahmedabad, prior to filing his nomination papers for the forthcoming elections. PHOTO: AFP

DELHI:


With each passing day, the election campaign in India is certainly getting nerve-wrecking, as political parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are playing every trick on the cards to woo the Muslim vote bank.


A few days ago BJPs’ Uttar Pradesh election campaign manager, Amit Shah stirred up a hornet’s nest through his inflammatory speech in a Hindu dominated region against Muslims. He was banned the by Election Commission of India to campaign in UP, only to be restored a day later.

On the other hand, the party president and senior leader, Rajnath Singh who is contesting elections from Lucknow, met top muslim clerics from the city and asked for their support during the elections.

The constituency of Lucknow has been a BJP stronghold since the 1990s and Vajpayee, who was elected for five consecutive parliamentary terms, is still the uncrowned king.

The BJP chief, Rajnath Singh is clearly aiming to cast himself in Vajpayee’s mould in this multi-religious constituency, seeking acceptability from all religions.

UP is a major player in national politics and also holds a large percentage of seats dominated by Muslims. Similarly, Lucknow has a 20% Muslim voter base which has to support BJP if they are to retain the constituency.

Ever since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fielded Bollywood actor and Muslim candidate Jaaved Jaaferi from Lucknow, several parties have sprung into action to weaken him by either fielding Muslim candidates or visiting every Muslim cleric.

Earlier, some Muslim clerics issued statements criticising Congress and urged the community not to vote for them. Now with their meetings with BJP, the party might surely relax and would not want to use its election campaign tag-line of ‘Abki Baar Modi Sarkar’ [this time, Modi’s government] in Lucknow.

BJP has not given a single ticket to a Muslim candidate in UP this time and has fielded only five Muslim candidates all over the country.

Uzair Hasan Rizvi is a journalism student at AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India, He tweets @rizviuzair

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20th, 2014.

COMMENTS (29)

Dipak | 9 years ago | Reply

It's shame, India is the only country in the world where Hindus of Hindustan are behind discriminated by grand design of Nehru and his Congress party. It's true to know that the first President (Governor General) of Pakistan was the grand son of a Gujarati Hindu and the first Prime Minister of India was a grand son of a Muslim Ghazi. It's time for BJP and Modi to retake the country from the corrupt Congress.

BruteForce | 9 years ago | Reply @antanu: So asking for votes of Muslims is "appeasement"? Can you please explain? So, if they don't ask for votes, they are the Hindu Right, bad people. If they do, its "appeasement".
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