Lucknow: The BJP in Uttar Pradesh will be launching a ‘Pasmanda Sneh Yatra’ from Thursday to remove misconceptions and rumours being spread around the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
Sources in the BJP said that senior party functionaries have been asked to hold discussions on UCC in the Muslim dominated pockets and apprise the minorities on how they were being “swayed by the opposition”.
In UP, the ‘yatra’ will pass through 32 Lok Sabha seats, including Saharanpur, Kairana and Rampur, where Muslims have a sizeable population.
Jamal Siddiqui, national president of BJP minority Morcha, said that the issue of UCC and the malicious rumours spread around it will certainly be high on the agenda during the campaign.
“The opposition is stoking a false and unfounded narrative around UCC and other issues. This needs to be taken up at the ground level,” Siddiqui said, and added that this was a conspiracy to weaken the Muslim community.
Coinciding with the eighth death anniversary of former President APJ Abdul Kalam, the campaign is proposed to be flagged off by the BJP national president J.P. Nadda from party headquarters in Delhi.
The yatra would continue till the ‘mazar’ (shrine) of BJP’s founding member and party’s first Muslim national general secretary Sikandar Bakht Qureshi, himself a Pasmanda.
BJP would halt the campaign for four days — from July 28 to July 31 — on account of Muharram before resuming it from August 1.
The yatra will enter Uttar Pradesh from Ghaziabad before moving into Dadri in Gautam Buddha Nagar and then to Bulandshahr where an event comprising Sufi songs is proposed to be organised.
Siddiqui said that senior party leaders, including BJP MPs of the respective districts, would remain present during the campaign that essentially intends to bring socio-economically backward Muslims closer to the party.
“Pasmandas have been given all the requisite support under the present Narendra Modi government. They have been one of the main beneficiaries of the various welfare schemes started under the BJP dispensation,” he said.
Siddiqui said that the party plans to meet the members of Muslim community to dispel the fallacies on issues concerning the minorities.
“We will take their feedback and ascertain about their future aspirations,” he said.
The Minority Morcha will also distribute pamphlets and other documents related to steps taken by the government in their favour.
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