What’s Modi Mitra certificate that BJP is giving Muslims ahead of 2024 polls?
The Modi Mitra certificates are part of the BJP’s minority outreach called the ‘Modi Mitra’ campaign. Recipients of this certificate have been chosen for supporting the prime minister’s policies irrespective of their political leanings
The BJP's Modi Mitra campaign is being run by the party's Minority Morcha and will continue until February next year. Image used for representational purposes/AFP
We are over 10 months away from the 2024 Lok Sabha general elections, but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is already gearing up for the battle ahead of them. Even as opposition parties mull over joining hands for the upcoming polls – a decision might be taken on the same at the Patna meeting on Friday – the BJP is already moving ahead with their plans.
Today, the party’s minority cell, the Minority Morcha, will give away ‘Modi Mitra’ certificates to around 150 Muslims in Uttar Pradesh’s Deoband town as part of their outreach program ahead of the upcoming polls.
We take a closer look at what are Modi Mitra certificates and why the Modi government has selected Muslims for this particular outreach program.
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Modi Mitra campaign
The Modi Mitra certificates are part of a larger outreach called the Modi Mitra campaign. The individuals who are selected for these certificates are professionals or businessmen interested in PM Modi and his policies irrespective of their political leanings so far.
BJP Minority Morcha national president Jamal Siddiqui told the Indian Express that these ‘Modi Mitra’s will not be a part of the party’s cadre but will become a support base ahead of the polls. “We will have all their data, we will be in touch with them. We will communicate every message from the PM and the government to them continuously,” he was quoted as telling Indian Express.
The Modi Mitra campaign was launched earlier on 29 April and will continue until February next year.
And for this effort, the BJP has selected 65 Muslim-dominated Lok Sabha seats where they make up more than 30 per cent of the population. Thirteen seats have been selected from the state of UP – Bijnor, Amroha, Kairana, Nagina, Sambhal, Muzaffarnagar, Rampur to name a few. Elsewhere, another 13 have been selected in West Bengal, five in Jammu-Kashmir, four in Bihar, six each in Kerala and Assam, three in Madhya Pradesh, two in Haryana and two in Telangana.
At the end of this massive exercise, all the recipients of these Modi Mitra certificates will be invited for a ‘Modi Mitra’ event in the nation’s capital, Delhi and will be addressed by Prime Minister Modi himself.
Siddique, speaking to News18, said that the logistics for this event were already being discussed and as there would be over one lakh individuals from the minority communities, the probability is high that it will be held at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi.
BJP wooing Muslims
Sources tell News18 that the outreach to the Pasmanda Muslims, the Bohra community, Muslim professionals, and educated Muslims isn’t an electoral strategy, but a part of Modi’s ‘sabka sath, sabka Vishwas’ program.
However, one can’t deny that the Muslim vote is significant in India – the community makes up 14 per cent of the country’s population as per the last Census. According to an analysis, of the 543 Lok Sabha seats across the country, there are 80 seats where the Muslim population is more than 20 per cent, while 65 seats have a population of more than 30 per cent.
Earlier, the BJP was perceived as an anti-Muslim party, and this narrative was pushed even further when in the 16 Lok Sabha elections (2014), it didn’t have a single Muslim MP in Parliament. However, the narrative is far from true.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the BJP made more gains of Muslim votes than the Congress which has traditionally relied on the votes from the community. According to a Lokniti-CSDS survey of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP doubled its Muslim vote share while the Congress vote share remained stagnant. The BJP bagged nine per cent of Muslim votes, more than double in the previous Lok Sabha elections in 2009 when it got four per cent of Muslim votes. The Congress got 38 per cent of Muslim votes in 2009 and the number remained the same in 2014.
Also read: How the BJP and Muslims are quietly working to mend fences
In 2019, the BJP’s Muslim vote share was nine per cent while the Congress’ fell even further to 33 per cent.
In the recently-held Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the BJP succeeded in getting at least eight per cent Muslim votes. The CSDS-Lokniti in its survey revealed that of the 20 per cent Muslim votes, the Samajwadi Party secured around 79 per cent and at least eight per cent votes went to the BJP, which is an increase of one per cent over the 2017 Assembly elections.
The main reason for this shift in the Muslim votes towards the BJP is that Muslims have benefited as much as Hindus from the various welfare schemes during the last five years in Uttar Pradesh.
With the 2024 elections, the BJP wants to improve their overall tally and for this reason they need the minority vote. It is left to be seen if the BJP’s outreach does in fact bear fruit.
With inputs from agencies
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