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Pi Bureau :
Lucknow: After big whooping and landslide electoral gain in Uttar Pradesh BJP will be faced with a problem, it never faced, when forming government and distributing different ministry- the question who will be the minister incharge of Minority Welfare and Haj ??
The department of Minority Welfare and Haj deals with around 20-24 percentage of population of the state.
In the just-concluded Assembly Elections in which the BJP bagged 324 seats along with allies, out of 403 seats, it had not given tickets to any Muslims.
Out of 24-odd Muslim MLAs who have won, 17 are from the Samajwadi party, five are from the BSP, and two from the Congress.
However, BJP Senior leaders like Kalraj Mishra and Fire brand Uma Bharti have emphasised the need for giving greater representation to Muslims. Kalraj even promised that “in the days to come, BJP will try and bring Muslims to Parliament and state assemblies through direct election.”
Earlier, BJP have minorities face like Seema Rizvi and her father Aizaz Rizvi in house as well in the state cabinet ministry. Even at central level BJP Muslim face and leaders like Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Najma Heptullah who remain a minority face, though symbolic.
However , state BJP’s state general secretary and spokesmenVijay Bahadur Pathak feels there is no reason to be concerned. “Why can’t a person from a majority community head the department?.
But getting a non-Muslim to head the department of Minority Affairs and Haj is not as easy as the BJP leaders make it out to be.
While prominent Islamic cleric and member of the All India Personal law board, Khalid Rashid Firangi Mehali, sounds concerned. He says,”The very spirit of Minority Welfare Department will be curtailed if a non-minority is appointed as head of the department.
