CHENNAI: BJP State President K Annamalai, who is starting his 168-day ‘yatra’ by foot and on wheels from Rameswaram with Union Home Minister Amit Shah flagging it off at a public meeting on Friday, has drawn out a definite plan to meet and interact with leaders of minority community leaders at the local levels in all the 234 Assembly constituencies that he would be covering.
Party functionaries, who are making arrangements for the conduct of the ‘yatra’ that will see Annamalai covering 1,700 km on foot and also travelling by a specially designed bus, have been told to identify local Muslim and, if possible, Christian leaders who would be willing to talk to Annamalai when he visited their constituencies.
Annamalai would like to clarify to the minority community leaders that the BJP was not against them in any way and was only keen on fighting terrorism, unleashed by militant organisations, the sources said.
He would meet small groups of Muslim leaders, say 10 or 15 of them, representing the local Jammaths, as part of the State-wide outreach to establish a rapport with the minority communities, most of whose members are now perceived to be opposed to the BJP for various reasons, the sources said.
Apart from dispelling their fears about the BJP and its perceived anti-minority stance, Annamalai would also offer incentives to the minority communities and assurances to help them out in ironing out their long-term problems, they said.
At the national level, the Ministry of Minority Affairs met leaders and representatives of Waqf Boards all over the country on July 21 in New Delhi. Waqf Board leaders who could not travel to Delhi were offered an opportunity to participate in the proceedings through video conference.
The communication from the Ministry said that the meeting called in connection with complaints about Waqf properties was also to engage with Waqf board leaders and address their concerns. Annamalai is expected to take the initiative to reach out to the Waqf, Jammath and other organisations.
Among the score of Muslim political and cultural organisations in the State, many of the popular ones are allied to the DMK-led front and some are part of the AIADMK coalition. Though the BJP is also part of the AIADMK coalition, there are certain apprehensions about the BJP even in the political camp.
It is to dispel those fears that Annamalai wants to personally explain to the community leaders of the BJP’s agenda and clarify that Muslims would not be affected if the BJP came to power at the national level once again while entreating their support and votes.
Several BJP functionaries and senior leaders are scheduled to accompany Annamalai in his walkathon, which would start on Saturday after Friday’s inauguration. The first of the five phases of the ‘yatra’ would go on till August 22 when former Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan would be with Annamalai.
On Thursday, the death anniversary of former President A P J Abdul Kalam, who originally hailed from Rameswaram, Annamalai remembered him by paying tributes to him through a tweet.
