The BJP is likely to change its strategy for fielding candidates in Muslim-dominated constituencies of the national Capital. Party sources said the upcoming Assembly election is likely to see a Muslim face for seats like Okhla and Matia Mahal from the BJP.
In the December 2013 Assembly elections, the BJP had fielded only one Muslim candidate in Delhi. Mohammad Nizamuddin was given a ticket from Matia Mahal constituency, but he had lost bringing the BJP’s position down to fourth position in the seat. Both the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), on the other hand, had fielded six Muslims each.
Although winnability will be the top criteria for choosing candidates, party sources said that the top leadership is seriously mulling over giving a few more tickets to Muslim leaders in minority-dominated segments. A frontrunner in the fray of candidates is the BJP’s minority cell president Atif Rasheed who is pressing hard for a ticket from the Okhla Assembly seat. Others in the list for the same seat include Mohammad Irfan Ahmad who had fought in the 2009 byelections from the same seat and Abrar Chaudhury. Interestingly, the saffron party has always fielded a Gujjar face from Okhla and has lost each time. last,
time BJP had fielded Dheer Singh Bidhuri who just got 17 per cent of the total votes in the constituency while the
winner was Congress’ Asif Muhammad Khan.
For sure, we plan to give tickets to more than one Muslim leader this time, unlike in the previous elections. We are considering strong Muslim
contenders for seats which are dominated by the minorities. These include areas like Okhla, Matia Mahal, Ballimaran and Seelampur. The problem is that the BJP has very few such leaders, said a senior BJP leader.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s direction, the Delhi BJP is also extensively propagating the slogan Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas. In order to substantiate its argument that it doesn’t take minority votes for granted, the party is doing a political experiment in the ensuing polls. The political experiment is likely to pay off as the party had fielded two Muslim candidates in areas dominated by the community in Haryana. And in both the seats our vote share had increased by 24,000 and 16,000, said another leader.
Meanwhile, to woo Muslims, the party on
Thursday will carry an
intensive membership drive in Nizamuddin Dargah.