New Delhi: After the poll setback it suffered recently in Karnataka, where an overwhelming majority of Muslims have voted for the Congress party, the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to woo the community in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Narendra Modi in his address in Bhopal, the capital of the poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, he tried to draw another line of Pasmanda Muslims and Muslim women among the community.
Harping again, as it is his wont, on the triple talaq, the prime minister said the practice “does not do justice to daughters…entire families get ruined.
The BJP has now undertaken a special drive in 65 minority-dominated Lok Sabha constituencies across India to reach out to the poorer sections within the community, euphemistically called Pasmanda Muslims. These sections are believed to have been benefiting from the central government’s social sector schemes.
Modi’s emphasis on the Pasmanda Muslim section comes as no surprise, as the party’s vote bank from the Muslim community has mostly consisted Pasmandas.
A recent Indian Express report said the Muslim community is divided along three lines — Ashrafs, Ajlafs and Arzals. The first are descendants of foreign rulers, Ajlafs are the converts and the Arzals are the most backward classes or converts.
The Ashrafs, who are the minority, have mostly been the face of Muslims in Indian politics and the issues plaguing the Pasmandas, which comprise the Ajlafs and Arzals.
The party’s carefully crafted ‘Sneh Milan’ and other such events are just one of the many attempts by it to woo the community. It remains to be seen whether the Pasmandas warm up to the saffron party as several states go to the polls this year in the run-up to the general elections next year.
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