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Gujarat Muslim leaders of BJP, Congress off 
to Varanasi

The Congress has dispatched a team of second-rung Muslim leaders who are led by Kalim Siddiqui, general secretary of the state party unit’s minority cell.

Muslim leaders of both the Congress and the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) who hail from Uttar Pradesh but have settled in Gujarat have flocked to Varanasi from where Chief Minister Narendra Modi is contesting the May 12 Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress has dispatched a team of second-rung Muslim leaders who are led by Kalim Siddiqui, general secretary of the state party unit’s minority cell.

Gujarat Congress leader Manish Doshi told Khaleej Times that all the 50-odd dedicated Muslim delegates were from Varanasi and hence were well acquainted with local language and culture to help mobilise voters in favour of the party.

Indeed, the Congress Muslim leaders are also carrying with them hundreds of copies of Hindi book ‘Sachchai Gujarat Ki’ (Truth of Gujarat) for distribution among educated voters.

“The book exposes Modi’s claims of development and will clear the confusion created by BJP’s Muslim leaders”, said Doshi.

On its part, the BJP has rushed to Varanasi a 30-man team of Muslims belonging to Surat-based Ansari community for campaigning in favour of Modi. All of them lived in Varanasi’s Jetpura Street and had all migrated to the diamond city with their parents two decades ago and have been in the textile business.

BJP leader I K Jadeja said that the Ansaris had all been loyal members of the party’s minority cell for several years and would convince voters how Muslims had prospered under the Modi regime.

mahesh@khaleejtimes.com