Patna,(BiharTimes): The state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party will have a smooth sail in the coming Assembly election provided it get consolidated support of Muslims.
This view was expressed by former excise minister Jamshed Ashraf, who is now a leading Muslim face of the state BJP. He had joined the party on the eve of the Lok Sabha election last year.
Ashraf was sacked by Nitish Kumar in February 2010 after he report-edly leaked a letter––which he wrote to the CM on the excise mafia––to a newspaper. He later joined Congress.
A former JD(U) MLA from Sahibpur Kamal in Begusarai and shipping magnate, Ashraf said the BJP would have to go an extra mile to ensure adequate participation of Muslims in government if the NDA comes to power. This can be possible only when a significant number of Muslims, who form 16.9 per cent of votes, get ticket to contest the Assembly election.
He refused to comment on the Muslim face for the post of chief min-ister saying that only the parliamentary board of the party is empow-ered to take decision on the matter.
To attract the community the saffron party had flagged off the Muslim Bedari (Awareness) Yatra on November 30 last year in the presence of former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and state BJP unit president Mangal Pandey.
Jamshed Ashraf has been entrusted with leading the Yatra.
According to Ashraf the focus of the Yatra is to create awareness. The real issue before the minorities is development and not communalism or secularism, which the so-called secular parties have been chanting for long.
The Yatra, in the last seven months, has covered Seemanchal and plans to cover districts bordering Nepal and Uttar Pradesh, which have a sizeable concentration of Muslims, in the coming days