BJP to hold a key meet with UP's notable Muslim community today after Modi's advice
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Lucknow: The BJP is reaching out to Uttar Pradesh's backward Muslims or pasmanda four months after Prime Minister Modi asked a party conclave in Hyderabad to uplift the community.
A key meeting of the BJP and members of the community is likely to be held today in Luknow here, according to NDTV.
This is the first of similar meetings that the BJP hosts in what is widely seen as an attempt to bring to its fold diverse sources of votes.
This comes days after the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had discussion with Muslim intellectuals including Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi and former Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung on issues ranging from Varanasi's Gyanvapi controversy to hate speeches, and population control to hijab row in Karnataka.
The BJP's win in Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha polls, previously strongholds of Muslim-Yadav alliance, has been a talking point at the BJP's Hyderabad event in July after Union Minister Swatantra Dev Singh brought it the subject the table.
PM Modi at the event said all sections of the society benefited from the work the BJP government has done in the last eight years.
Meanwhile, Yogi Administration in its second term brought onboard Muslim leader Danish Azad Ansari, who is from pasmanda community, to be the Minister of State for Minority Welfare, Waqf and Haj.
The pasmanda Muslim community is a notable vote bank among Muslims in Uttar Pradesh where the BJP hopes to gain newer vote banks ahead of polls in 2024.