Lucknow: Eyeing the Muslim vote bank for the upcoming civic body election in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has made a big announcement. The saffron party has given more than 300 tickets to Muslim candidates for the civic elections — sticking to its earlier promise. These tickets were given to candidates belonging to the Pasmanda Muslim community, which represents Dalit and backward-class Muslims.
Among the 300, around 30 tickets were allocated for the post of chairman of the Municipality (Nagar Palika) and Nagar Panchayat. Mostly the tickets were distributed among Muslim candidates belonging to West Uttar Pradesh. The BJP has been assuming that by winning these seats in the civic body elections, the party will prop up 200 new Muslim leaders in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
Most of the candidates who were given tickets are associated with the Pasmanda community. Apart from this, tickets were distributed among Muslim candidates belonging to the Shia community. The saffron party's minority cell will make a formal announcement of the names of candidates later on.
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The president of the BJP's minority cell said, "We have crossed the 300 mark. BJP will seek votes from the Muslim-majority wards on the basis of work done by the party. We are expecting huge success in the upcoming civic body elections in the state. The party had earlier made an announcement that wherever there are Muslim-majority wards and municipalities, Nagar Panchayats, the candidates will be Muslims only. The majority of the Minority Morcha workers will be included in the list of candidates," Kunwar Basit Ali, president of the BJP Uttar Pradesh Minority Morcha, said.
