Kolkata: Hoping to break the party’s anti-minority image with their messaging, the BJP’s two Muslim candidates in this state have said their outreach have not been not based on the triple talaq poll plank, but on issues such as domestic violence and the need to educate women in the community.
Humayun Kabir, contesting from the Murshidabad Lok Sabha seat, and Mafuja Khatun, who is fighting from Jangipur, are the party’s only two Muslim candidates in its list of 42 for the state. While Kabir is a former Trinamool Congress (TMC) minister, Mafuja is a two-time CPI(M) legislator. Both Jangipur and Murshidabad went to polls Tuesday.
Both Kabir and Mafuja said Tuesday asserted that they did not want to highlight the triple talaq issue as it certainly would not have given them the desired results. Basic issues such as the need to empower Muslim women and end domestic violence, they thought were more effective in mobilising votes of the community which forms nearly 30 per cent of West Bengal’s population.
“The issue of the triple talaq bill was not highlighted in my campaign as the impact of the custom of instant triple talaq is not equal across the country. In Bengal, the victims of triple talaq are fewer compared to other parts of the country. The issue will not find resonance in Bengal,” Mafuja told this agency.
Incidentally, the Jangipur Lok Sabha seat, from where she is contesting, has 58 per cent Muslim voters. “I stressed on local issues such as basic amenities and the plight of beedi workers and employment generation of youth and erosion of the banks of river Ganga, which has rendered thousands of people homeless,” added Mafuja.
Several top BJP leaders claimed the Modi government’s efforts to pass the triple talaq bill will yield dividends in the near future.
But Mafuja and Kabir differed with their views. “Triple talaq will not find resonance as minorities are divided on this issue. So there is no need to increase their confusion. Rather, we campaigned about the development of the Lok Sabha constituency, including proper education of the girl child in Muslim households,” Kabir said.
Both candidates said they had not received any negative feedback about representing the BJP. The opposition projected the party as a ‘party of Hindus’ and they would work towards removing that stigma.
“The Muslims in my constituency have welcomed me with warmth and affection. I am confident of getting their support. I am confident that I would be able to remove this so called label of anti-Muslim party,” Mafuja, who joined the BJP in 2017, said.
According to Kabir, the BJP’s ‘anti-Muslim’ image has been built by political opponents to serve their own political interests and there has been no discrimination.
“I have been in both TMC and Congress. I have seen how these two parties work. The BJP is the only party where there is no discrimination on the basis of religion. It’s only your capability that matters unlike other parties where caste and religion are deciding factors,” Kabir pointed out.
The Murshidabad Lok Sabha seat from which Kabir is contesting has more than 50 per cent Muslim population.
