BJP offers Cabinet berth to a Muslim if voted to power

In a desperate bid to woo the minority community voters, BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate in Karnataka B S Yeddyurappa promised to provide a Cabinet berth to a Muslim if the party is voted to power in the coming Assembly elections in the State.

Participating in a function organised to mark the entry into the BJP of three Samajwadi party candidates, who had retired from the fray in constituencies in Bangalore yesterday, Yeddyurappa claimed that minorities too were supporting the BJP in the elections along with dalits and backward castes.

Instead of allowing themselves to be used as a vote bank by the Congress party, Yeddyurappa said Muslims should come forward and support the BJP in the interest of good governance and development.

Yeddyurappa’s promise of a cabinet berth to a Muslim comes after the party came under criticism from various quarters for not fielding even a single Muslim candidate in any of the 224 assembly constituencies in the State. Also, the BJP does not have any members belonging to the Muslim community in the State Legislative Council.

Though the party had not fielded any Muslim candidates in the assembly elections, Yeddyurappa claimed that he had made a huge budgetary allocation for minority welfare when he held the Finance portfolio in the erstwhile H D Kumaraswamy-led JD (S)-BJP coalition Government.

The BJP had invited the wrath of its own party MP H T Sangliana for its failure to field candidates from the minority community in the ensuing elections. Sangliana, a retired cop, who represents the Bangalore North Lok Sabha seat, has even threatened to resign from the party after the results of the elections are announced.