BJP launches Muslim outreach programme in Kerala ahead of local body elections

Thiruvananthapuram: The BJP in Kerala on Friday announced a Muslim outreach programme. Party state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that it was aimed at countering the campaigns that BJP is anti-Muslim.

The move comes just ahead of the local body polls in Kerala. The assembly polls are also following. Kerala has a Muslim population of 26.6 percent (as per 2011 census) and Muslim voters are a decisive factor in many constituencies.

Even as the BJP has been carrying out Christian outreach programme in Kerala, the frequent instances of attacks and police actions against the community members in BJP ruling states was causing a setback. A group of senior Bishops from Kerala along with BJP state leaders held a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week.

BJP state vice president Abdul Salam will spearhead the Muslim outreach programme. Senior leaders including party national vice president A P Abdullahkutty, who was earlier with the Congress and CPM, will be visiting Muslim households and community leaders as part of the outreach programme.

"The Congress and CPM were unleashing a campaign that the BJP is anti-Muslim. The outreach aims at countering it by spreading Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Sabke Saath Sabke Vikas' message. Greeting cards of the Prime Minister will be given to all those who return after Hajj pilgrimage," Chandrasekhar said.

The saffron party's fresh move seems to have come with the realisation that the anti-Muslim stature of the party is a key barrier in making much electoral gains in Kerala. There used to be feeble Muslim representation among the BJP's candidates in the previous elections despite the high Muslim population in the state. Generally the Congress-led United Democratic Front used to gain from BJP's anti-Muslim stature.

Abdul Salam, who is spearheading the Muslim outreach programme, was party's lone Muslim candidate in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Salam, who is a former vice chancellor of Calicut university, contested from Malappuram. He got only less than eight percent votes. During a road show conducted by Modi as part of the election campaign in adjacent Palakkad, BJP candidates from the nearby constituencies including Manjeri in Malappuram could participate along with Modi. But Salam was not there. The CPM and Congress had then carried out a campaign that it reflected BJP's anti-Muslim attitude.