Ahead of Crucial Polls in Indian States, Muslim Organisation Urges Voters To Support BJP

Five Indian states, including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, will be going to the polls from 10 February. The election results will be announced on 10 March. The country’s main opposition Congress and other political parties are preparing to take on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) especially where it rules in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.

Ahead of the crucial state assembly elections in five Indian states, the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), an organisation representing the country's Islamic community, said that Muslims felt most secure and happy under the government of the fererally ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and urged its members to vote for it.

The MRM also attacked the country’s main opposition party, Congress, as well as the socialist Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and other political parties for treating Muslims as easy votes and doing nothing for them during their tenure.

The organisation released a letter of appeal for distribution in the poll-bound states.

According to media reports, leaflets encouraging voters to support BJP will be distributed among members of the minority communities in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur and Punjab.

The leaflets will stress how much BJP has done for Muslims and that it has been the most solicitous for the needs of minority communities.

The letter reads: “Over the past 70 years, all political parties treated Muslims as a vote-bank and turned them into bonded slaves through appeasement. This was broken by the Modi government in 2014 with his slogan of ‘Sabka saath, sabka vikas and sabka vishwas’ (Collective Efforts, Inclusive Development and everyone’s trust). That is why, in 2019, both Hindus and Muslims voted for the BJP. We urge you to cast your vote for the BJP this time.”

The MRM slammed Congress, SP and BSP for running propaganda against the BJP and its ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as it said that members of minority communities are falsely told that they would be thrown out of the country if BJP were to come into power.

The Muslim body further said in its appeal letter: “The BJP is the biggest well-wisher of the country and will continue to be so.”

Bashing Congress for doing nothing for Muslims, the organisation claimed that people of its community have suffered a lot because of poverty, illiteracy and hatred towards Hindus during the Congress regime.