The BJP on Saturday appointed former Aligarh Muslim University vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor as one of its vice-presidents, and Anil Antony, son of senior Congress leader A.K. Antony, as a national secretary, seen as an attempt to woo sections of minority voters.
The appointments were part of an organisational revamp by party boss J.P. Nadda to prepare for the upcoming state elections and the Lok Sabha polls next year.
Mansoor, who was recently nominated to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council by the Yogi Adityanath government, was appointed one of the 13 vice-presidents of the party that includes former chief ministers like Vasundhara Raje Scindia (Rajasthan) and Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh).
The BJP hopes to useMansoor’s identity as a Pasmanda or backward Muslim to get the votes of his community.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has on more than one occasion called upon the party to make an outreach towards the Pasmanda Muslims, pointing out that they have been a major beneficiary of hisgovernment’s welfare schemes.
The bid to wean away sections of the Muslim community by playing on caste and class differences was test-fired by Nitish Kumar in Bihar to crack the RJD’s minority support base and now Modi appears to be trying out the same formula.
Mansoor was AMU VC during the peak of the protests against the proposed Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens. The BJP and the RSS were learnt to have been pleased with the way he had steered the minority institution during the difficult period. This led to his nomination to the Legislative Council of Uttar Pradesh and now he has been given a prominent position in the organisation.
Similarly, with an eye on Christian votes, particularly in Kerala, Anil Antony has been made one of the 13 national secretaries of the BJP. Anil jumped ship and joined the BJP early this year.
The organisational rejig saw some prominent leaders being dropped too. C.T.Ravi and Dilip Saikia, a Lok Sabha MP from Assam, were removed as general secretaries.
Ravi, a key leader from Karnataka, is believed to have paid the price for hitting out at party stalwart B.S.Yeddyurappa in the run-up to the elections, which the BJP lost badly to the Congress. Ravi also lost his Assembly seat.
