NEW DELHI, February 10: The All India Federation of Muslim Biradaries, which claims support of 80 per cent of the community, today called on them to defeat the "communal"' BJP and its allies in the Lok Sabha elections."Our one-point plan is defeat of BJP and its election partners since they have no secular credentials," Maulana Habib-ur-Rehman Noamani, MP and president of the All India Momin Conference, told a press conference.
The BJP manifesto, by raising issues like construction of temple in Ayodhya and uniform civil code, proved that the party was "communal", he said adding that Muslims would vote for candidates who had the potential to beat BJP nominees.
For the Federation, which comprises 12 Muslim bodies like All India Momin Conference, All India Jamaat-e-Saifia and Jamaat-e-Quresh, all parties except the BJP were secular, Noamani said.
However, a release said the "so-called secular parties have been exploiting Muslim voters for decades deliberately ignoring their legitimate andconstitutional rights." Alhaj Mauji Khan Saifi, president of Jamaat-e-Saifia, said the Congress and other parties had treated them as "vote bank" but that this time the only option was to choose a "lesser evil".
I A Sajjad, former diplomat and president of All India Jamiat-ul-Quresh, said the local leaders of the Biradaries would decide on the potential of the candidates against BJP and appeal to the community to vote for them.
He claimed that such appeals would be issued in all constituencies where a candidate of BJP or any of its allies was in the fray. He said they would ensure that the Muslim vote do not get scattered among anti-BJP parties.
Asked whether the Congress had not almost admitted guilt for the demolition of Babri mosque by offering an apology in the manifesto, Sajjad said the apology was "for not being able to save the mosque since a Congman was PM then and not for the masjid."
However, all the leaders agreed that parties who had been giving tickets to Muslims over the yearswere ignoring lower class Muslims.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
