BJP's outreach to Muslims in UP ahead of next LS polls

Apparently buoyed by its victory in the Muslim-dominated Rampur Assembly constituency in the bypoll last year, the BJP is now planning to reach out to the minority community through a series of conferences in the western UP districts, where Muslims are in sizable numbers, ahead of the next Lok Sabha polls, scheduled to be held in 2024.

The saffron party planned to organise 'Sneh Milan - Ek Desh Ek DNA Sammelan' (harmony meet - one country, one DNA conference) in the western UP districts starting from next month, a senior BJP minority wing leader here said on Tuesday.

The leader said that the first such conference would be held in Muzaffarnagar next month, followed by similar conferences in other districts including Baghpat, Meerut, Shamli, Saharanpur and others.

He said that the conferences were aimed at driving home the message that the "DNA of all of us was the same". ''It is in line with the party's slogan of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas'' he added.

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The decision to reach out to the Muslims came after the saffron party declared that it would field a "considerable" number of Muslims in the forthcoming local body polls in Uttar Pradesh from areas where the community had a sizable strength.

''Our victory in Muslim-dominated Rampur has shattered the Opposition's claims that the minority community is averse to voting for the BJP candidates,'' the leader said.

Earlier, the saffron party, in an apparent bid to reach out to the community, had said that it would organise meetings of ''Pasmanda Muslims'' (backward and Dalit Muslims) at various cities. The Muslim leaders of the saffron party had already started preparations for the meetings, sources said.

Although, the BJP had won 65 of the 80 seats with its allies in the 2019 LS polls in UP, it had lost in several Muslim strongholds of Moradabad, Rampur, Bijnore, Sambhal and Saharanpur.

The SP leaders, however, said that the saffron party's outreach to Muslims was nothing but an eyewash and a desperate bid to show that it cared for the community. ''Muslims are being persecuted under the BJP regime....their homes are being razed by bulldozers,'' SP LS member Shafiqur Rehman Burq said.