Kolkata: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may have emerged as the main opposition party in West Bengal, but it hasn’t yet earned the trust of the Muslim community, admitted key leaders as they analysed the party’s strength and weaknesses ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Last week, party president Amit Shah set an ambitious target for the local unit to win at least half of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats. To get there, the party must earn the backing of the Muslims in the state, which in the past few elections have voted en masse for the Trinamool Congress.
Around 750 Muslim candidates belonging to the BJP have won in the recent panchayat elections in the state, according to Sayatan Basu, general secretary of the party in West Bengal. But the number is still “much lower than required”, he said. So a dedicated campaign is to be launched to woo Muslim voters in the state.
The party may reach out to Muslim voters in the same manner as Prime Minister Narendra Modi did when he was the chief minister of Gujarat, said Basu. He managed to pull together the Hindus and Muslims saying that Gujarat belongs to Gujaratis and not to any community, he added.
That apart, the party will speak about development initiatives of the centre that benefitted all communities. “But we cannot give allowances to religious leaders like the Trinamool Congress government does,” said Basu.
Also, the BJP expects to gain from two former Muslim lawmakers joining the party. Mahfuza Khatun from the Communist Party of India and Humayun Kabir from the Trinamool Congress have recently jointly the BJP, and they are being given key roles in rallying support from among the Muslims.
Based on feedback from Muslim women, the party has started to speak in rallies about the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2017, which bans instant divorce, said Sujit Das, BJP’s district president in Malda. Though a section of the electorate from the Muslim community has turned to the BJP lately, the party still needs to cover a lot of ground.
“With the Trinamool Congress constantly calling us communal, it isn’t easy convincing people,” Das said.
So while speaking about central schemes that have benefited the Muslims, the party will also focus on schemes that were spurned by the West Bengal government, he added.