BJP & Modi won Muslim votes too: Clerics

He may have been projected as someone distrusted by Muslims and granular data of which way the community has voted may not still be available, but if comments of some influential clerics are to be believed, the BJP and Narendra Modi have managed to win their votes too.

Muslims too have voted for the BJP in large numbers, especially in Uttar Pradesh, these clerics said, as they exhorted prime minister-elect Modi to fulfill the promises he has made to the community and the country.

Maulana Mehmood Madni, the powerful head of the Deoband sect, Maulana Tauqeer Raza of the Bareillvy sect and Maulana Kalbe Jawad, the most influential Shia cleric of UP told ET that the Congress had disappointed the community and enough indications had been given to the party of disenchantment but it didn’t take it seriously.

“Muslims have voted for the BJP in many parts of UP after Modi reached out to the community and assured them not to be fearful of a BJP regime. We don’t fear him anymore and we are waiting for him to fulfil his promises,” says Maulana Kalbe Jawad, the head priest of Lucknow’s Shahi Asafi mosque, the country’s largest Shia mosque. Maulana Jawad had campaigned against Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, which has more than three lakh muslim votes.

Echoing the sentiment, Maulana Tauqeer Raza says the reason for the BJP’s astonishing victory was the wave against the Congress which the BJP converted in its favour. Asked whether Muslims would be worried looking at the emphatic victory of the party, Maulana Raza says the verdict has to be accepted by all. “What is the question of worry? I haven’t seen worry in the Muslims of Gujarat and even in many parts of UP, Muslims have supported the BJP candidates,” he said.

Maulana Madni, on his part, called for the decision taken by the people of this country to be “accepted with an open heart”. “Now the onus is on the BJP to rise above religion and caste to govern well. Constitutional supremacy ko compromise nahin karna chahiye.”

The BJP recorded its best ever performance of a simple majority, performing especially well in the main battleground state of Uttar Pradesh, where Muslims are nearly a fifth of the population. The BJP won 71 seats in UP, its best performance ever decimating the Congress and regional players such as the SP and the BSP.

The Congress, according to these clerics, has been decimated because it had taken the community for granted and has not received support in even its pocket borough of Amethi.

The Congress was banking on a Muslim consolidation against the BJP, but in the run to the elections, several clerics had told ET that the party was unlikely to get support from the community.

The Muslim vote was wooed by almost all political parties especially in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar that account for 120 seats in parliament. Muslims account for almost 18 per cent of the population in Uttar Pradesh and 17 per cent in Bihar. The BJP has won 110 seats from the two states alone.