The Bhartiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh is now launching a new campaign under which it will make an effort to convince Muslims to become 'Modi Mitra' (friends of PM Narendra Modi).

This ambitious pre-poll campaign is aimed at mobilising the minority community in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The campaign, proposed to be carried out by state BJP Minority Morcha, will cover 29 Lok Sabha seats of UP - including the 14 constituencies which the saffron party could not win in the 2019 parliamentary elections.

The other 15 seats, including Moradabad, Bijnor, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Amroha, Balrampur, Ghazipur, Bareilly, Rampur, Azamgarh, Baghpat and Meerut, would be those which have a sizable population of Muslim voters. This will also include Rampur and Azamgarh, which the BJP otherwise won in the bypolls held last year.

UP BJP Minority Morcha chief Kunwar Basit Ali said that the campaign is being initiated as part of the 'Mahasampark Abhiyan' (mass contact campaign), the month-long campaign, signifying completion of nine-year rule of the BJP at the Centre under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The minority front will reach out to the influential class amongst Muslims to make them 'Modi Mitras', so that the message and policies of the BJP government get delivered amongst the minorities in a better way.

Sources said that the Morcha plans to highlight how the various welfare schemes initiated under the leadership of Modi benefitted the minorities.

Ali said that nearly 4.5 crore Muslims benefited from the various schemes including PM Awas Yojana, construction of toilets under Swachh Bharat Mission and free gas cylinders under Ujjwala Yojana.

Moreover, he said, around 2 crore Muslim population benefited from the free ration scheme which was initiated at the time of the pandemic.

He said that the Morcha would also exhort the beneficiaries from the Muslim community to send letters to Modi expressing their 'gratitude' to the government.

The Morcha also plans to take the Yoga Day programmes scheduled on June 21 to the madrasas and communities practising 'Sufism'.

Ali said that the Morcha would seek to establish a dialogue with the Sufis to shore up support for the BJP.

The BJP has been reaching out to the Muslim community as part of its deft attempt to blunt opposition aggression, essentially the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party which has been positioning itself against the BJP. (IANS/NS)