Why is the BJP going out of its way to influence Muslim voters?

There was a time when BJP was considered a party of Brahmin-Baniya and forwards. Dalits and backward people used to stay away from him. Muslims used to be staunch opponents of BJP. Later, the BJP expanded its scope and worked to organize the entire Hindu society with the help of the Ram Mandir movement. With this, the Brahmin-Baniya BJP became a Hinduist party. Its advantage was that its governments were formed in many states. The BJP coalition government was formed at the center as well. Came out of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh and BJP’s strongman Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the country’s first Sanghi ideology Prime Minister. Later BJP’s influence increased further, but the BJP high command could not stop the division of votes in the name of casteism for a long time because Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati were constantly trying to instigate backward and Dalits against BJP. Keep working After this, today Akhilesh Yadav is taking forward the same work by demanding caste enumeration, but he is not getting any special success in this. BJP has created a strong vote bank and now to strengthen it, BJP is trying to break its anti-Muslim image.

The BJP is moving forward on the strategy of making inroads in the backward class of Muslims i.e. Pasmanda society and breaking the anti-party perception among the intellectual class of Muslims. In this sequence, a new team of Muslims is being prepared within the party, in which intellectual and backward class personalities are being given preference. Party sources say that the strategy to get the votes of a section of the Muslim community in the Lok Sabha elections at any cost was made in the national executive meeting held in Hyderabad last year. The roadmap for this was prepared after the PM’s call to reach out to Muslims, especially Pasmanda Muslims, regardless of votes. There were indications of forming a new team of Muslims on several occasions last year. In Uttar Pradesh, Danish Ansari was made a minister in place of Mohsin Raza. Last year itself, the tenure of Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Zafar Islam in Rajya Sabha was not extended. In the same year, the Modi government nominated Ghulam Ali Khatana, a member of the Gurjar Muslim community, to the Rajya Sabha. Made a firebrand youth in the form of Shahzad Poonawalla the spokesperson of the party. Sneh Yatra was taken out to win the hearts of the Muslims. Former Vice Chancellor of Aligarh University Prof. Tariq Mansoor was nominated in the Legislative Council. The thinking behind this was to change the thinking of the intellectual Muslim class.

In fact, BJP strategists believe that the main reason for BJP’s inability to make inroads among Muslims is the anti-party perception created in the intellectual class. Because of this, BJP could not reach Pasmanda Muslims and the beneficiary class of government schemes in a planned manner. To remove both these hindrances, the party needed a new and important face from this class. In this sequence, Tariq Mansoor was nominated to the Legislative Council after making Arif Mohammad Khan the Governor and now he has been made the National Vice President of BJP. The new faces of the backward and Pasmanda class of this community were continuously given place in the organization, government and parliament. The upcoming Lok Sabha elections, especially in Uttar Pradesh, are no less than a litmus test for the party. Most of the seats in BJP-dominated states, including UP, are with the party, while this time there is no scope for expansion except Telangana. In such a situation, the party needs additional votes to retain the seats in the areas of influence, this can happen only if the hearts of Muslims can also be won.

Significantly, the party had been doing symbolic politics till now in the context of Muslims in the past. Due to this, selected faces got importance in the organization and government, but the party did not get any benefit from it. PM wants to end this practice. This is the reason why the importance of Najma Heptulla, MJ Akbar decreased in the last nine years, many faces did not get a second chance in the Rajya Sabha. The BJP is adopting every trick regarding the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In this sequence, 8 leaders of UP have been given a place in the list of office bearers of the BJP Central Executive for the victory of UP. But the most talked about is former Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University and BJP MLC Dr. Tariq Mansoor. The BJP high command has given him the responsibility of the National Vice President after a lot of thought. The motive is clear, the party high command is trying to woo Muslim voters through Tariq Mansoor, former vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University. Under this scheme, BJP has awarded him a big position like National Vice President.

For the last few days, BJP is trying to break into the vote bank of Pasmanda Muslims. Under this plan, Tariq Mansoor has been given a place in the BJP National Executive as a Muslim face. Talking about the identity of Dr. Tariq Mansoor, before coming into politics, Tariq was the Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University. BJP had made him MSL a few days back. He is a resident of Aligarh district. Dr. Tariq Mansoor is inspired by the ideology of RSS, during the Corona period he praised PM Modi’s work. BJP has high hopes from him. Especially in Muslim-dominated seats, Tariq can prove to be Taroop’s ace. Of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, 29 are Muslim majority. There are about 4 crore Muslims in the entire state and the maximum population among them is of Pasmanda Muslims. West UP has the largest number of Muslim voters. Here the seats of Saharanpur, Meerut, Kairana, Bijnor, Amroha, Moradabad, Rampur, Sambhal, Bulandshahr and Aligarh are Muslim dominated. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had to face defeat in Saharanpur, Bijnor, Amroha, Sambhal, Moradabad and Nagina. BJP wants to convert this defeat into victory. BJP’s fascination for Pasmanda Muslims is not otherwise. The BJP had fielded 391 Muslim candidates in the civic elections held in UP recently. In these, its 61 Muslim candidates also won. Muslim candidates of BJP had won 5 seats of chairman. After this victory, BJP is continuously expressing its faith in Muslim candidates. This trend is sure to be seen in the Lok Sabha elections as well. Overall, the glimpse of ‘sabka saath-sabka vishwas’ is clearly visible in the new BJP team.