Shia community to back BJP in 2019

Lucknow: The newly formed Rashtriya Shia Samaj (RSS) has announced its support  to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

RSS president Bhukkal Nawab, who had left the Samajwadi Party last year to join the BJP, said that Shia Muslims will  not only support the BJP but will also favour the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya.

Bhkkal Nawab, who is also a BJP MLC, said that no other political party cared for Shia Muslims like the Bhartiya Janata Party did.

He explained that it was former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who helped in lifting a 20-year-old ban on Shia processions in the state capital.

He pointed out that Shia leaders like Union minister Muktar Abbas Naqvi, state minister Mohsin Raza, National Commission of Minorities Chairman Syed Ghayorul Hasan Rizvi, UP Minority Commission Chairman Haider Abbas have been given respectable positions by the BJP government.

“In SP regime, its leader Mohammad Azam Khan did all possible things to repress the Shia community”, Mr Bhukkal Nawab further alleged.