Source: Reuters
BY Mayank Bhardwaj, Krishna N. Das
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party is struggling to change a “perception” that it is against minority Muslims and lower-caste people, a political ally said, which could cost it votes in a general election due next year.
FILE PHOTO: India’s Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan speaks during an interview with Reuters in New Delhi, November 12, 2014. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) trounced the opposition at the last election in 2014, but it has lost a handful of recent by-elections after opposition groups banded together.
Veteran politician Ram Vilas Paswan, a federal minister and the chief of the Lok Jan Shakti (People’s Power) Party, which is allied with the BJP and says it represents India’s socially backward classes, predicted another term for Modi.
But he said the BJP would have to work toward changing its image as a group that caters mainly to upper-caste Hindus.
Categories: Asia, India, Muslims, The Muslim Times