BJP should have given tickets to Muslims for UP polls: Rajnath Singh
Rajnath added that had there been a Muslim candidate, 'it would not have harmed us'.
New Delhi: Union Home Minister and veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said that the saffron party should have given tickets to Muslim candidates for the Uttar Pradesh elections.
During an interview, Rajnath said, “We've given tickets to minorities in many other states. Talks must have happened here in UP as well... I was not there, this is based on what I have learnt. May be the BJP parliamentary board didn't find any winnable Muslim candidate. But I believe even Muslims should get tickets”.
When pressed further on whether Muslims should have been given tickets, the Home Minister said, “They should have been. Whoever deserves must get tickets”.
The BJP has not given a single ticket to a Muslim candidate for the 2017 UP state polls.
Rajnath added that ‘had there been a Muslim candidate, 'it would not have harmed us’.
Muslims constitute around 20 per cent of the population in UP.
On Pakistan arresting LeT founder and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed, Rajnath called it an ‘eyewash’.
“This is not the first time Saeed has been detained. The Pakistani government has done this in the past too. This is just an eye-wash”, Rajnath said.
He also said that it would be good if Saeed was extradited to India so that he could be tried in an Indian court.