Lucknow (PTI): Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya has accused the BJP rivals of keeping the Muslims in the state backwards and promised that his party will "serve" the Pasmanda Muslims by becoming their watchman.

At a programme organised by the BJP's minority wing to facilitate the members of the Pasmanda community on Tuesday, he said, "You strengthened the Samajwadi Party, sometimes the BSP and sometimes the Congress by voting for them. They reached high levels of politics with your cooperation. You should think about what these parties did for you."

"These parties spread poison to keep Muslims away from the BJP. Other parties deliberately left the Pasmanda community behind. When it comes to voting, someone will take your votes by making hateful statements and then leave you to your plight. But we (BJP) will truly serve you by becoming your watchman."

Maurya told the members of the Pasmanda Muslim community, "You have trusted them, just trust the BJP for once. The mainstream of the country's politics is the BJP only. Those who have only used Pasmanda Muslims till now should be taught a lesson."

In the coming days, programmes will be held in every city area for Pasmanda Muslims, he said.

Minority Welfare Minister Danish Azad Ansari said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have worked for the social and educational upliftment of Muslims and will continue to do so.

Pasmandas are backward classes of Muslims and constitute 85 per cent of their total population in Uttar Pradesh. There are 41 castes in this community, including Qureshi, Ansari, Salmani, Shah, Mansoori and Siddiqui.

The BJP is organising Pasmanda conferences as part of its efforts to bring this large section of Muslims into its fold. The party has announced that it will also give tickets to Muslims in the upcoming municipal elections.



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Barbodas: Team India on Thursday bundled England out for 103 runs to enter the final of T20 WC 2024.

Batting first, India had scored 171 runs with the help of skipper Rohit Sharma's half century and useful knocks from Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya.

England in reply, succumbed to the Indian bowling line-up and only managed to score 103.

India will now face South Africa in the final of the tournament that will be held on Saturday June 30.