Saffron party goes all out to woo Muslims at Surat meet

With an eye on 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is leaving no stone unturned to attract the minority group and change their perception of the party. The party organised ‘Muslim Samaj Maha Samelan’ at Dumbhal in Limbayat, Surat, on Sunday.

The meet, presided over by Rajya Sabha member Bharatsinh Parmar, was called for addressing issues related to Muslims in the state and winning back their trust.

Speaking to a crowd of around 1,000 people, Parmar slammed the Congress for using Muslims as vote banks and said that the minority group had realised the importance of development politics.

“Gujarat is the state providing maximum employment across the county and Muslims over here are getting equal opportunities. The minority group has tasted the fruit of development in the state and is happy under the leadership of chief minister Narendra Modi,” said Parmar.

At the meet, the organisers also claimed that around 10,000 Muslims recently joined the BJP and it was all because of party’s ideology and influential leaders.

“As a political party, BJP works for welfare of the society. Gujarat is the best example, as Modi has constantly worked for the betterment of people. Around 10,000 Muslims have come forward and joined the party, which shows that the party is gaining popularity among Muslims,” said Raees Pathan, organiser of the meet.

According to Pathan, Muslims across the country have accepted Modi’s leadership and want to see him as the prime minister in 2014.

However, all the claims made by BJP during the meet were completely rubbished by Congress leaders who termed it as a flop show.

“The meeting was nothing but failure. The Muslims never trust BJP and the low turnout in the meeting clearly indicates that. Mahmood Ali Bava, BJP minority cell president, was not present in the programme suggesting that something is wrong,” said Congress spokesperson (Surat) Aslam Cyclewala.