Lucknow: Aiming to win all the 80 parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh in 2024 general elections, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has now decided to bring Muslims in its fold. To woo minority voters and specially the backward Muslims, BJP has planned a Yatra in UP.
On August 1, national president of BJP, JP Nadda would flag off this Yatra which has been named as Pasmanda (backward or oppressed) Sneh Yatra from the party headquarters in Delhi. Though the Yatra would cover many states, its main focus will be on minority dominated seats of UP. The minority cell of BJP in UP is taking a lead in this Yatra, which will cover 27 minority dominated districts. Beginning from Ghaziabad the Sneh Yatra will cover Bulandshaher, Hapur, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Bijnor, Amroha, Moradabad, Rampur, Bareilly, Shahjahanpur, Sitapur, Lucknow, Barabanki, Gonda, Balrampur, Ayodhya, Sultanpur, Amethi, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Deoria and Azamgarh before entering Bihar. The Yatra will be in UP from August 1 to August 10.
BJP's Muslim candidates won in local body elections
It may be mentioned that BJP has been trying to woo backward Muslims in UP for the last one year. After winning the minority dominated assembly seat of Rampur in the by polls this year, the party decided to work on this front in a more precise manner. In the recently held urban local bodies’ elections, BJP fielded a large number of Muslim candidates and many of them registered victory also. Of the 391 Muslim candidates fielded by BJP in urban body polls of UP, 61 had won. Enthused with this result the party decided to launch an outreach programme among Muslims of UP.
The party had recently distributed Urdu translation of PM Modi’s Mann Ki Baat programme speeches in Madrasas of UP. The party has recently nominated the vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) as a member in the legislative council of UP.
Voters to be apprised of welfare schemes
According to a senior UP BJP leader, during the Yatra the party workers and office-bearers will apprise Muslim voters about the welfare schemes launched by the union as well as the state government. Besides, the Yatra would create awareness about the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) also. He said that backward Muslims have been ignored by all those parties who have been claiming to be the sole defender of minorities in UP. BJP has decided to lure this section of Muslims through awareness programmes and such Yatras, said he.
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