BJP hopes to reap dividends from silent Muslim outreach in Bengal

A Bharatiya Janata Party rally in support of its Cooch Behar candidate and Union Minister Nisith Pramanik, raising “Allahu Akbar” slogans grabbed eyeballs in north Bengal’s Dinhata on Thursday, but the reverberations could be far-reaching.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

In his back-to-back rallies in West Bengal earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asserted that Muslim women would vote against the Trinamool Congress because of the torture of women in Sandeshkhali.

BJP Cooch Behar president and MLA Sukumar Roy told The Sunday Guardian that Thursday’s rally was held with Muslims from two Assembly segments, Sitai and Dinhata. “We will be holding a rally with Muslims from the entire district in Cooch Behar town soon,” Roy said.

Roy said a large section of Rajbanshi Muslims from north Bengal, particularly from Suktabari area in Cooch Behar district, had participated in Narendra Modi’s rally in Siliguri earlier this month. “The situation here is changing. People are now labelling the TMC as communal because the party always uses Muslims as a vote bank,” Roy said.

Across the country, the BJP has taken a conscious decision to reach out to the community. PM Modi, in his rallies across the country, has repeatedly referred to the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code, the abolition of Triple Talaq and amid a pitch for unity, he did manage to bring in the topic of Pasmanda Muslims and Muslim women. Pasmanda Muslims are the most backward and socially oppressed among the community and are spread across the country.