‘Better’ if Muslims got tickets, says Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

New Delhi/Lucknow: With the BJP not giving a ticket to any Muslim candidate in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Union minister of state for minority affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi felt it might have been “better” if  the lotus brigade had taken the minorities along. When reminded that top ministers Rajnath Singh and Uma Bharti had raised the issue of the BJP not giving tickets to Muslims, Mr Naqvi toed their line and said the “BJP should also have given tickets to Muslims. It would have been a good signal”. Taking the opposite viewpoint, Hindutva hawk Vinay Katiyar justified the party’s move to not give tickets to Muslims, saying: “When Muslims don’t vote us, why should we give tickets to them?”

Mr Naqvi, however, was quick to add that the “concerns of Muslims will be addressed when the BJP comes to power in Uttar Pradesh”. Earlier, Ms Bharti, who was in favour of giving tickets to Muslims, had said she would raise the issue with BJP president Amit Shah. Union home minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh had told a TV channel on Thursday that the BJP should have given tickets to Muslims in UP.

Talking about “sabka saath, sabka vikas”, Mr Naqvi said the BJP believed in “taking all sections of society” along with it. Sources said the BJP had “consciously” decided not to field any Muslim candidates as the party was “not expecting any votes from this community”, a senior party leader said. For the BJP, “giving a ticket to a Muslim candidate would be a complete waste”. A senior leader explained: “It’s not that if we field a Muslim candidate, they will vote for us. Instead, not only will no Muslim vote for us, but by fielding a Muslim candidate we could also lose the support of the our core votebank, which is the Hindu vote.”