'Shukriya Modi Bhaijaan': BJP's new campaign to woo Muslim women in UP

With the tagline 'Na duri hai, na khai hai, Modi hamara bhai hai, (there's no detachment, there's no chasm, Modi is our brother)', the campaign aims to attract at least 2,000 Muslim women towards the party.

New Delhi: A signature campaign where Muslim women ‘thank’ Modi for his schemes is one of BJP’s new initiatives to reach out to beneficiaries ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha campaign.

Through the ‘Shukriya Modi’ campaign, which was launched recently, the party’s minority wing aims to reach out to at least 2000 Muslim women in each of the 543 Lok Sabha seats. Till now, the party has gathered 5 lakh such signatures.

Jamal Siddiqui, BJP minority wing president said that the campaign, through which signatures are presented to the district magistrate in each district, will now carry on till the elections.

“Women have been holding choupals to drive signatures; and they are thanking the prime minister in their own language – while in UP it is Shukriya Modi Bhaijaan, in West Bengal it is Shukriya Modi Dada, Shukriya Modi Bhau in Maharashtra and Shukriya Modi Anna in Tamil Nadu. Of a target of 10 lakh, we already have 5 lakh signatures,” Siddiqui told DH.

In all the Lok Sabha constituencies Muslim women have been urged to thank Modi for development schemes such as Ujjwala, Ayushman, Awas Yojana etc, as well as initiatives specific to them such as the triple talaq ban, increase in Haj quota, and removing the need for mehram during Haj etc. The plan, leaders said, is to reach out to 1.5 crore women through various mediums, with door-to-door awareness reaching out to at least 2 lakh women.

Siddiqui said that the campaign has met with success in UP, where leaders have reached out to women across 64 districts. In Karnataka, the campaign has spread to 22 districts, in addition to 40 districts in Tamil Nadu, 8 districts in Kerala and all of Delhi’s 11 districts.

Basit Ali, the minority wing of the party’s UP unit, said that responses have come in for 80 schemes.

“Beneficiaries should know that it is Modi who has given them these benefits. There are people who are misguiding beneficiaries. We also came up with a tagline – 'Naa doori hai naa khai hai, Modi humaare bhai hai' (There’s no wedge or divide between us, Modi is our brother),” Ali said.

Siddiqui said that next in line is a samvaad (discussion) programme under which the minority wing will deploy over 10,000 workers countrywide to carry out programmes in each Assembly sections to garner votes for BJP.