The BJP has now decided to woo Muslims in West Bengal and would like to give them tickets in the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 assembly elections. A meeting in this regard was convened by Arvind Menon, a close aide of National President Amit Shah and joint convener of the campaign committee of Bengal, in Kolkata on Thursday. Menon asked party leaders and members attending the meeting to woo Muslims and find candidates among them.
"Go door to door, befriend them and try to win their hearts," Menon reportedly told the members of the West Bengal BJP. West Bengal has around 3.14 crore Muslims, constituting around 30 per cent of the total population. The BJP has understood that if it has to defeat the Trinamool Congress it would have to win a portion of the Muslim votes, predominantly Sunni Muslims.
Though the party has a minority cell in the state, it is not strong enough and does not meet regularly or hold meetings, unlike other morchas.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who in the past has successfully established contacts with Shias Muslims in India, failed to make much inroads among the Sunni community in West Bengal.
The BJP's strategy is to use the Triple Talaq Bill and win hearts of the Muslim women first. There are also considerable number of Muslim population along the rural belt who are not politically concerned. "So we need to tap them and bring them into our fold," said a BJP leader who attended the close-door meeting.
The BJP is trying hard to create an opinion in favour of the Triple Talaq Bill. It is trying its best to build a perception that Muslim women are not getting justice owing to the "faulty and harassing divorce" law because of the opposition parties. "It will be a weapon for us. We will have to take this matter to Muslim women. We need to tell poor women that they have not received justice because of the TMC, the Congress and the Left who are trying to block the smooth passage of the bills," said a BJP vice-president.
The BJP would also raise the issue of polygamy ahead of the Lok Sabha elections to create political wave in favour of it in Bengal's rural battle. "Even if Muslim votes are divided between two or three parties, that would also help us," said the BJP leader.
