Muslims support pro-development stance of BJP: Najma

Lucknow, Apr 18 (UNI) Former Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson and BJP leader Najma Heptullah today sought to dispel misconception that Muslims never voted for the saffron Party.

''Muslims always supported the pro-development stance of the BJP and their voting in the favour of the party in the recent Muncipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls was evidence of this,'' she told a press conference here.

Ms Heptuallah, once a Congress loyalist and now another Muslim face of the BJP, said the party had always tried to cater to all sections and religions of the society and this feeling had started creeping into the minorities too.

Charging all other parties with playing with the sentiments of Muslims ''without actually doing anything wortwhile to improve their lot,'' she said the Sacchar Committee report had exposed all so-called secular partis of the country.

''The report clearly mentions that no party inlcuding the Congress has been of any substantial help and support to Muslims for the last sixty years of independence,'' she pointed out.

Blaming squarly all these 'secular' parties for the plight of Muslims, the former Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson said ''today the condition of Muslims is worse than that of Dalits in the country.'' Referring to the recent statament of Rahul Gandhi that his family was responsible for division of Pakistan by creating Bangla Desh, she said the young Congress MP seemed to have no knowledge of history as well as of politics. ''My family also fought for the freedom. Neither was in the favour of the first division (India and Pakistan nor supported the second division which Rahul had referred to,''she said.

Ms Heptullah was enthused about the prospects of BJP in the UP assembly polls saying her party was seeking votes on the plank of development.

UNI