The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minority wing in Uttar Pradesh will launch its ‘Qaumi Chaupal’ campaign in roughly 4,100 Muslim-dominated villages across the State with special focus on 23 parliamentary seats which have a sizeable Muslim electorate. Qaumi is an Urdu term that refers to a community.
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Launched in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election, the BJP outreach will begin on February 10 from Muzaffarnagar, a communally sensitive district in western U.P. which had witnessed Hindu-Muslim riots in 2013.
“Our aim is to initiate a dialogue with the Muslim community and sensitise them about the welfare schemes initiated by the double-engine BJP government. We will organise meetings in roughly 4,100 villages having a sizeable Muslim electorate. Our focus is 23 Lok Sabha seats, which includes Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Kairana, Rampur, Sambhal, Moradabad, Bareilly, Nagina, Aligarh, Agra, among others having sizeable Muslim electorate. We will start the campaign from Muzaffarnagar on February 10,” the BJP’s State Minority Morcha president Kunwar Basit Ali told The Hindu.
More Muslim BJP candidates
The party has been reaching out to U.P.’s Muslim population through various initiatives and recently organised a ‘Sufi Samvad Maha Abhiyan’ at its State party headquarters in Lucknow. The ruling party doubled its Muslim candidates during last year’s local body polls, offering 395 tickets to Muslims in comparison with just 180 tickets in the last local body polls. It had also nominated former Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Vice-Chancellor Tariq Mansoor to U.P.’s Legislative Council.
The Muslim community constitutes roughly 20% of U.P.’s population and has a sizeable presence in more than 20 Lok Sabha seats in the State.