Despite the huge turnout at Sadbhavna Mission function, few workers of the Saffron Party are willing to buy the argument that Muslims will now vote for the BJP because of the new show of goodwill.
BJP workers have mixed feelings about chief minister Narendra Modi's new goodwill towards the Muslim community. Despite the huge turnout at Sadbhavna Mission function, few workers of the Saffron Party are willing to buy the argument that Muslims will now vote for the BJP because of the new show of goodwill. On the contrary, the party may end up losing the votes of orthodox Hindus, the workers say.
However, there is also an opinion within the party that Hindus will not vote against Modi as they are happy with the state's development and will have forgotten the Sadbhavna show in a few weeks.
At the start of the Sadbhavna Mission, the chief minister had called the 'six crore Gujaratis' as his family. The large number of Muslims who were present there at the time had applauded the CM for this.
Modi had also requested all the people to join in the development of the state by maintaining harmony between classes and
communities.
"Modi has been able to retain his chief ministership because of his image of saviour of Hindus in Gujarat. If he changes his line and warms up to Muslims, the BJP will definitely lose votes of Hindu hardliners," said a senior BJP leader on the condition of anonymity.
The leader further said that it would be interesting to see how things unfold politically in the coming days and whether the Saffron Party loses its vote bank in a bid to win to over Muslims.
"Modi has tried hard to change his image through the Sadbhavana Mission but I believe that he will never be acceptable to the Muslims," he said.
Another BJP worker said that Modi's change of attitude towards Muslims won't affect the loyalty of moderate Hindus to the party.
"They will forget the whole thing in a few days and again vote for the BJP. They will be guided by the development and growth of the state which has benefited Hindus as well as Muslims," he said.
Recalling the razing of temples in Gandhinagar a couple of years back, the leader said that there was much speculation and concern at the time whether the Hindus will vote for the BJP now.
"However, the party is still in power. Past experience shows that Hindus believe in tolerance," the leaders said.
A small-time worker of the BJP was spontaneous in his view that the Sadbhavna Mission was nothing but a political game orchestrated by none other than Modi himself.
"The chief minister believes that if he has to reach the national level, he has to bring all communities together. Otherwise, Modi is a believer and practitioner of Hindutva," the party worker said.
Many other workers of the party hold the same view. They are convinced that Modi is using Muslims to launch himself at the national level. "In case he needs to adopt fanatical Hinduism, he will show no hesitation in doing that. And most BJP workers know this. So, there is no question of his losing Hindu votes," said a BJP worker of Ahmedabad city.
A party worker from rural Ahmedabad said that the Muslims may have turned up during the Sadbhavna Mission in huge numbers, but they will not vote for the party at all.
"The chief minister's decision to bring Muslims into his fold has not gone down well with BJP leaders and workers but no one has any choice in the matter," he said.
"The CM is autocratic in his working style and no leader can express his opinion freely," he added.
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