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As many as 76 Muslim BJP workers, including office-bearers of its minority cells, from Indore, Dewas and Khargone districts of Madhya Pradesh left the party on Thursday over the new citizenship law and the proposed NRC.
“Only we know how difficult it is for us to get our community members to vote for the BJP and we do everything to persuade them, but if the BJP keeps talking about contentious issues like these, it will become more and more difficult for us,’’ Rajik Qureshi Farshiwala, known to be close to senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya, told The Indian Express over the phone. Farshiwala is among those who quit the party.
Most of those who resigned are booth-level office-bearers of different cells and active workers. They held a press meet in Indore to announce their mass resignation. A few days ago, many office-bearers of the party’s minority cells from other parts of Madhya Pradesh quit over the same issue.
Farshiwala said the office-bearers had requested senior leaders to include Muslims in the purview of the new law. “We appreciated the ruling in Babri Masjid-Ram temple case and did not oppose the triple talaq legislation, but more contentious issues like Common Civil Code appear to be in pipeline. How long will we get caught up in Hindu-Muslim issues? Will our children not get a chance to pursue higher studies?”
An office-bearer of state BJP minority cell said those who resigned “did not hold significant responsibility”.