By Vivek Tripathi
Lucknow, April 30 With the Uttar Pradesh Urban Local Body (ULB) election around the corner, the BJP is reaching out to the Muslim community, primarily the Pasmandas.
For the first time, all parties have given tickets to Muslims in abundance.The BJP has also reposed faith in Muslim candidates this time.
According to political experts, the BJP keeps on experimenting continuously, so that it can get electoral success. This is the reason why the BJP, which has so far refrained from giving tickets to Muslims, has fielded a large number of minority candidates for the first time in the municipal elections. But, only the results will tell how successful this bet will be.
The party has fielded 391 Muslim candidates for elections.
The BJP has given tickets to Muslim candidates for several posts, ranging from the president of Nagar Palikas to counsellors of the Municipal Corporations (Nagar Nigam).
Experts said that the BJP has set a target of winning the maximum number of local bodies in this election. That is why the party has expressed faith in Muslim candidates in minority dominated areas.
The BSP has also played a big bet on Muslims in the election. For the first time, they have fielded 65 per cent candidates only from this community.
According to political experts, the BJP has either never won or contested in the bodies and wards in which Muslim candidates have been fielded. By reposing faith in Muslim candidates, these people have created a strategy to make a dent in the large vote bank of the minority community.
UP's minority welfare minister Danish Azad Ansari said: "Muslims are joining our party by trusting the development politics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Our party has never done vote bank politics."
"Only BJP wants the empowerment of Muslims. Our party wants the upliftment of this society. In the upcoming local body polls, the BJP has given a large number of tickets to Muslims."
On the appointment of Muslim candidate, Samajwadi Party spokesperson Ashutosh Verma, said: "BJP has always been accused of being anti-minority. Since the BJP has now come to know that its ground is going to slip in the civic elections, it is doing such things. But the Muslim society has not forgotten its insult. They know that SP fights for them."
Senior political analyst Ratanmani Lal said that since 2012 till now, the BJP has kept the Muslim community away from its campaign. But in the last two-three years, slowly a soft corner is being seen from the side of RSS and BJP towards them.
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