With Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh just months away now, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has started flexing its muscles to garner public support and enthuse the workers. Aiming to secure minority community votes, the party has now planned to target 5,000 votes in each assembly constituency.
The BJP Minority Morcha has decided to train its members to seek votes for the party in the upcoming Assembly polls. The party will identify 50 strong workers in each assembly constituency. They will be given training and asked to target 100 votes from surrounding lanes.
"We analysed previous polls. Almost 20 per cent of assembly seats have been lost with a margin of 5,000 votes. Even in Bengal, we lost a considerable number of seats with lesser margins," Jamal Siddiqui, president of Minority Morcha BJP, said when asked why the party is targeting 5,000 votes.
Siddiqui said the Morcha has identified 50 seats in Uttar Pradesh that have more than 60 per cent Muslim population and plans to secure tickets for his community. To boost morale of Muslim workers of BJP, the party has a slogan: "Jo chunav ladega wahi aage badhega (Those who contest will march forward)."
"It is our community's responsibility to back us up. We would aspire for greater representation from the party but to ensure that our candidates win is our community's responsibility," Siddiqui said.
In the last assembly elections, the BJP did not give a single ticket to any Muslim candidate in Uttar Pradesh. However, Siddiqui believes that things are likely to change in this election.
"We don't get tickets because we don't have candidates who can win elections. We should fight from the Muslim seats. We can be instrumental in connecting with the community," he said.
Siddiqui has a logic for those-- voters and politicians alike-- who oppose BJP candidates fielded from his community. "Muslims have 25 per cent share in BJP as one of its founding members was Sikander Bakht. Our community doesn't know these facts. If we are enemies of BJP, why is it that BJP is working for us as well," said the Morcha chief who is preparing for his first national executive post-appointment.
Uttar Pradesh will go to the polls early next year.
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