‘Muslims are with PM Modi’: BJP’s outreach on Waqf Act

Lucknow: "Alpsankhyakon ka ye paigam… Modi ke saath Musalman" (The message of minorities: Muslims are with PM Narendra Modi). That's the new slogan to be whipped up by the BJP as it gears up to chart out a Muslim outreach campaign on the Waqf Amendment Act.
The slogan, sources said, will be put on full public display on Saturday, when the party calls a meeting of its office-bearers to hammer out a blueprint for a state-wide campaign. This campaign will see office-bearers connecting with Muslim clerics and heads of madrassas to discuss the nuances of the Waqf Act and how it benefits the community.
The meeting, scheduled to be organised in Bhagidari Bhawan, will be attended by senior BJP leaders, including party national general secretary and national in-charge for communicating with Muslims on the Waqf Act, Dr Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, state president Bhupendra Chaudhary and state general secretary Dharam Pal Singh. The party has already constituted a team of senior office-bearers, including state vice-president Triyambak Tripathi, state Minority Morcha president Basit Ali, and state secretary Shiv Bhushan Singh, to coordinate the ambitious campaign.
The BJP has been revving up minority outreach slogans for the past many months in what is being seen as a measure to blunt opposition aggression, which has been relying heavily on the consolidation of Muslim voters to take on the saffron outfit. Just before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP put up hoardings carrying a slogan, "na doori hai na khai hai…Modi hamara bhai hai" in Muslim-dominated localities of the state. The exercise, though, had only a partial effect as the BJP returned to power, albeit with a significantly reduced majority.
Before that, the party flagged the slogan "Shukriya Modi Bhaijaan" to suggest that the Muslim community was thankful to the Modi govt for pushing a slew of welfare measures, including Ujjwala, PM Awas Yojana, Ayushman Bharat, and the construction of a free toilet scheme. A senior BJP leader maintained that 35% of the beneficiaries of the various welfare schemes were primarily from the Muslim community. "These communities need to be tapped continuously," said a senior BJP leader.
Sources said that the party also plans to rope in its state women frontal organisations to mobilise Muslim women to seek their support for the Waqf Act. Experts said the move draws a close parallel with the party's campaign for triple talaq, another sensitive issue directly impacting the minority community. "We are waiting for the formal instructions from the party high command," said a senior leader in the UP BJP women morcha. The frontal wing has alerted its 48,000 functionaries in all 1,918 mandals for a potential campaign on the Waqf Act.