BJP's Muslim outreach programme to begin next month

Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Minority Morcha is going to start a Muslim outreach programme across the country from March 10.

As part of the programme, 14 states have been identified in the first phase in which there are 64 districts.

These states include Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Goa, Haryana, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Ladakh, Maharashtra, Kerala and Bihar.

In the party's National Executive meeting held last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for reaching out to the minority community and especially Pasmanda Muslims.

For this programme, BJP already constituted a national team and national in-charges. Now state-wise teams are being formed. These teams will work following the advice given by the Prime Minister for reaching out to the Muslim community.

Sources said the party has identified those places where the Muslim population are considerably high. The party identified 60 such Lok Sabha constituencies where the Muslim population is over 30 per cent.

As many as 5,000 people are being identified in each of these Lok Sabha constituencies. These people do not belong to BJP but are affected by the welfare policies of the Modi government. For example, these are people who become doctors, an engineer, social workers, journalists, or businessmen. In other words, these are the people who are important in society and can be influencers. So efforts are being made to identify such people who can communicate with the people around their lives and the society at large, said BJP sources.

Sources further said BJP Muslim Morcha will reach out to these people who could be a vendor, labourers, doctors or an engineer who may not be associated with politics but play influential roles and can work for the betterment of the community and society.

The party is in identifying such people in the Muslim community who can be the best influences in society communicating messages of the government.

At the BJP National Executive meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month called upon party leaders to reach out to the minorities, including Muslims, without expecting votes.

The PM spoke about areas where the party needs to be strengthened ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

"PM called upon BJP workers to meet Pasmanda Muslims, Bohra community, Muslim professionals and educated Muslims without expecting votes in return," sources said.

Modi also instructed BJP leaders to refrain from unsolicited remarks against any community, sources added.