Senior BJP leader K.S. Eshwarappa on Monday said his party needed the votes of “nationalist Muslims” but not all Muslims, contradicting the inclusive line that his party claims Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed it to follow.

Eshwarappa, sacked as minister over a corruption scandal but a leading BJP campaigner for the upcoming Assembly polls, told a news conference in Mangalore that he had never said the BJP did not need Muslim votes.

“(It isn’t true) that the BJP doesn’t need Muslim votes. We don’t need the votes of Muslims who support the PFI (Popular Front of India, a banned extremist organisation) and the SDPI (Social Democratic Party of India, the PFI’s political arm). Nationalist Muslims will support us,” he said.

In January, Karnataka BJP veteran B.S. Yediyurappa had said, after meeting Modi on the sidelines of the national executive in Delhi, that the Prime Minister wanted the party to take Muslims into confidence.

“In any case, we have a good rapport with the Muslims, whom we respect. We shall contact them more in the coming days in keeping with the Prime Minister’s advice,” Yediyurappa, a former chief minister, had told reporters in Shimoga.

However, as the Assembly polls draw near, BJP leaders have been increasingly making inflammatory remarks on “love jihad” and other polarising issues. Eshwarappa’s remarks on “nationalist Muslims” came a day after he had made a controversial statement about the ritual of azan during the BJP’s Vijay Sankalp Yatra in Kavoor near Mangalore.

“Wherever I go, this (azan played over loudspeakers) is a headache,” he had told the gathering. “Does Allah hear you only if you scream over loudspeakers? In our temples, we too perform puja — shlokas are chanted, girls sing bhajans,” he said.

Hindu temples, however, are known to play religious songs and hymns over loudspeakers during festivals and other special occasions.

On Monday, Eshwarappa sought to play down the azan controversy, saying he had only meant to say that loudspeakers disturb the neighbourhood.

“The use of loudspeakers for azan disturbs students preparing for their exams and patients in hospitals,” he told the news conference.

“I’m only saying this on behalf of people disturbed by azan over loudspeakers. I have not disrespected the religion and not stoked any controversy over azan.”

Eshwarappa has been known to make provocative remarks. He had last year called the 18th-century ruler of Mysore, Tipu Sultan, a “Muslim goonda”.

He was forced to resign as the minister for rural development and panchayat raj last April after a contractor committed suicide accusing him of seeking a 40 per cent cut to clear a Rs 4-crore bill.

Eshwarappa has since then been trying unsuccessfully to get reinstated in the ministry. But the BJP has entrusted him with campaigning for the Assembly polls.