BJP announcement of 176 candidates in Rajasthan is gone under scanning of Muslims. Only 3 muslims are contesting from BJP in Rajasthan.
Only one-and-half per cent of the 200 seats turns 60-lakh strong muslim community to shun their reservations about the BJP, showing up the party’s own dichotomy.
“BJP’s response is disheartening. Our efforts to change the mood have fallen flat,” says former cabinet minister Nasru Khan, denied a ticket from Kamah seat in Bharatpur district this time.
Modi’s recent rally in Jaipur saw a sizeable presence of Muslims but the community failed to find more representation in the candidates list, leaving BJP’s Muslim leaders distraught as this time’s tally of three is even less than the 2008 assembly polls when four had made it. Of Rajasthan’s 4 crore voters, Muslims comprise 15%.
BJP’s Muslim leaders consider this a missed opportunity. Though a traditional Congress vote-bank, the community’s been looking for options following atrocities in five years, raising apprehensions over Congress’s rule. The Gopalgarh police firing killed 10 Muslims; there were more than 25 communal riots; a Muslim officer was burnt by a mob in Sawai Madhopur.
Second, over 80% Muslims in Rajasthan are Sunnis, considered liberals who had begun to show some semblance of softness towards the BJP in recent times.
In Kamah, BJP’s fielded Jagat Singh, ex-external affairs minister Natwar Singh’s son though Meo Muslims are the dominant force here. A Meo, Nasru Khan says he lost by a whisker to Congress’s Zahida Khan in 2008, “a remarkable feat”. “The party should’ve reposed faith in me this time too,” he says. Industry minister in Bhairon Singh Shekhawat government from 1993 to 1998, Vasundhara Raje nominated Khan chairman of Mewat Board in 2003.
The BJP’s minority wing had sought 10 tickets. The three who made it are Yunus Khan (Didwana), Habib-ur Rehman (Nagaur) and Akram Sagir (Dholpur). Minority wing president Amin Pathan’s application for candidature from Kota (north) too was ignored; Gujjar leader Prahlad Gunjal’s been fielded here.
src: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/25471774.cms