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BJP out to woo Muslim voters

Paliab Bhattacharya, New Delhi
Buoyed by exit poll predictions of the first phase of parliamentary elections putting the BJP in the lead, India's ruling party decided to go all out to woo Muslim voters ahead of the second phase of elections to be held in 137 constituencies on April 26.
The main opposition Congress, jolted by the exit polls results, decided to invoke the appeal of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty in a bigger way by fielding its fifth generation member Rahul Gandhi, son of party chief Sonia Gandhi, in several con-
stituencies of Uttar Pradesh.
The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is contesting 77 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, where Muslims constitute 17 percent of the electorate, and 32 seats will go to poll on April 26. Pollingfortheremaining48 is slated for the fourth and fifth phases on May 5 and 10.
Mindful of the Muslim votebank, the fresh electioneering for the BJP began on Wednesday with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee addressing community leaders and asking them not to nurture the feelingofbcing left out.
"I need your supportnotbecause
of elections but because 1 have been striving for years to ensure that Hindus and Muslims here live together, foster brotherhood, help each other and make each other secure, so they can take the country forward," he told the Muslim leaders.
Vajpayee's interaction with the Muslim leaders was organised by a group of intellectuals who last month formed "Atal Behari Vajpayee Himayet Committee" to mobilise support for his leadership.
Soon after the prime minister's address, the committee members,
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including former bureaucrats, imams and universities teachers, set out on a tour of Uttar Pradesh to campaign for the BJP.
Muslims constitute 15 percent of India's one billion population and the community vote bank can tilt the fortune in over 100 parliamentary constituencies.
With BJP's rising electoral graph, the party has sought to repackageitself as a centrist party which cannot possibly ignore decades of antipathy of Muslims towards the party.
Soon after the last general elections in 1999, the BJP came out with a resolution asking its cadres to win over the Muslims. In 2000, the then party chief
Bangaru Laxman recalled quoting party ideologue Deendayal Upadhaya that "every section of Indian society is the flesh of our flesh and the blood of our blood".
In an effort to live down its pro-Hindutva image, the BJP released its "Vision Document", an euphemism for its 2004 election manifesto, on March 29 making a subtle but significant shift from its ideological issues from temple in Ayodhya to uniform civil code to conferring special status on the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir.
For instance, the party in 1998 talked of scrapping special status to Jammu and Kashmir. But in "Vision Document", the party does not even talk about this and instead calls for elimination of terrorism from the state and accelerating economic development there.
On the temple in Ayodhya, the BJP no longer talks of removing all hurdles in its construction and instead speaks of either a judicial solution or negotiated settlement and mentions a law in parliament only as an option.
In fact, even before the process of 2004 parliamentary polls was set in motion, Vajpayee urged the Muslims to shed their apprehensions about the party.
The BJP leaders claim the party can woo away a sizeable section of Muslims from the Congress, Samajwadi Party and BSPin Uttar Pradesh.
The Congress suffered erosion in its Muslim support base since 1991 when its government headed by Rajiv Gandhi allowed foundation stone for a Ram temple in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh with the major beneficiaries being Samajwadi Party and BSP.
However, Rajiv's widow Sonia heading the party since 1997 has been trying to turn the trend and working closely with traditionally pro-Congress Muslim outfit Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Hind linked to Deoband seminary to regain Muslim support base.
But there is growing perception in certain quarters about Samajwadi Party's increasing proximity to the BJP and the unpredictable approach of BSP which had thrice in the past joined hands with BJP to share power in the state.
The BJP has succeeded in roping in its ranks prominent Muslim leader from Uttar Pradesh Arif Mohd Khan, former federal minister, and fielded him as a candidate in Kaisergunj constituency of the state.
The Congress also inducted another leading Muslim leader Syed Shahbuddin, a member of Babri Masjid Action Committee, for campaigning.
The Samajwadi Party too has gone all out to retain its Muslim vote base by giving 10 percent nominations to minority community members out of its list of 77 candidates in Uttar Pradesh, promising in its manifesto reserved seats in engineering and medical colleges for Muslim students. It called for complete non-interference in personal law of minorities and favouring establishment of confederation of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.