Development is BJP's plank: Najma Heptullah

RANCHI: BJP leader Najma Heptullah today called upon Muslims to support her party in the election as it did much for the community and would like to do more if voted to power.

Heptullah said that the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's motto was development for all.

"The BJP's agenda is based on development. The A B Vajpayee government worked for the development of madrasas and assisted Haj pilgrims, and Narendra Modi's plank is also development," the former deputy Chairperson of Rajya Sabha told a press conference here.

Replying to a query why Muslims should vote for the BJP when only one candidate from the community got ticket out of a combined 54 seats in Bihar and Jharkhand, she argued that Muslims could get more tickets once they begin identifying themselves with the party. The BJP, she asserted, worked for the development of every community - Muslim, Hindu, backwards and others.

"Madhya Pradesh was clubbed as a BIMARU state. Now the BJP-led government there worked for development and twice got awards in agriculture production," she pointed out. "......Some people have got stuck at Gujarat riots, which had also happened in Bihar, UP and Maharashtra and other places since Independence," she pointed out.