Uttar Pradesh: BJP to engage with Pasmanda Muslims on road to 2024 Lok Sabha polls
The BJP is now out to aggressively woo the other backward classes (OBCs), scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) equivalents among Muslims, known as Pasmanda.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) has decided to step up its plan to connect with the Muslim community through a host of government schemes on the road to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The central idea behind the exercise is to connect with Pasmanda Muslims, the most backward among the country’s biggest minority groups, mostly wooed by all the non-BJP parties during elections.
The decision comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘tushtikaran nahin triptikaran (fulfilment, not appeasement)’, message at the party’s national executive in Hyderabad earlier this month.
After a little experiment that the party carried out ahead of the 2022 U.P. assembly polls, the BJP is now out to aggressively woo the other backward classes (OBCs), scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) equivalents among Muslims, known as Pasmanda.
During the assembly polls, the state BJP general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal had, in order to check the Muslims from voting en masse behind any particular party, tasked party leaders with wooing the Pasmanda Mulsim community members engaged in a variety of service jobs – from washermen, barbers, butchers and ironsmiths.
The party strategists saw “huge possibility” among this group that includes Malik (Teli), Momin Ansar (Julaha), Quresh (Kasai), Mansoori (Dhuniya), Idrisi (Darzi), Saifi (Lohar), Salmani (Nai) and Hawari (Dhobi) among others.
“In west U.P, the party tasked its cadre with getting 10,000 community votes in each assembly segment and deployed two Pasmanda Muslims in each booth. Such community members, who had benefited from the government’s welfare schemes, were identified and approached. A small Muslim labarthi (beneficiaries’) meet, too, was organised to explain how, their fortunes could change only under the BJP. We believe that in closely contested seats this group tacitly helped the BJP,” a party leader said.
Javed Malik, the BJP’s west U.P. minorities wing chief, agreed.
“We had tasked the cadre with ensuring at least 20 community votes in each booth. I think the party got about 7 to 8 per cent community votes, mostly by Muslim women — who were soft towards the BJP due to the decision to make instant triple talaq a punishable offence — and the Pasmanda Samaj, among whom delivery of various welfare measures helped,” he said.
“There were about seven constituencies in west U.P. like Dhampur, Nahtaur, Moradabad (city), Bijnor (Sadar), Baraut and Bilaspur, where this group’s active or neutral support helped us win several seats where the winning difference was between 200 and 700 votes,” said Malik who also heads the Akhil Bharatiya Pasmanda Manch.
As of now, 30 of the 34 Muslim lawmakers in the U.P. assembly are from the Pasmanda Samaj. Ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha polls, a plan is also underway to popularise such Muslim icons like 1965 war hero and Param Vir Chakra recipient Abdul Hameed, a Pasmanda (Idrisi).
“We are targeted as anti-Muslim. But we always prefix ‘vir (brave)’ while referring to Abdul Hamid. We have always praised former President the late APJ Abdul Kalam, who too belonged to this community. Now, we will focus more on this segment of the community,” a BJP leader said.
The elevation of Danish Azad Ansari, 33, as a minister of state, despite the fact that the man he replaced Mohsin Raza, a Shia Muslim and current chairman of state Haj committee, had been careful not to ruffle any feathers in the party, is part of the same exercise.
“Talk to any upper caste Muslim and they would tell you that there is no caste bias among them. But, the manner in which Azad was greeted with casteist slurs like “julaha” on social media by many, including some upper caste Muslims, soon after he was made a minister, does indicate the caste rift in the community. The truth is that 15% community has hijacked the voice and rights of the rest. We are out to correct this. As for political gain, that eventually follows if the thinking is right,” said a BJP leader who is part of the party’s outreach plan among Pasmanda Muslims.
“It’s a smart political move because by connecting with the most backward, the BJP is seeking to break stereotypes and break fresh ground. It is seeking to create new support base among poor Muslims,” said professor Manuka Khanna of Lucknow University’s Political Science department.