Congress trying to cash in on CAA stir to win back Muslim support

Hyderabad: Congress which is struggling to get the support the Muslims of the State has been finding the controversy over Citizenship Amend Act as an opportunity to win them back to its side.

The party has raised the pitch over the CAA issue and has planned several protest programmes to register their resentment. The party leaders are part of the Joint Action Committee formed against the CAA.

Several party leaders said that CAA controversy is a good opportunity for the Congress to win back the confidence of Muslims. They said that the party must adopt an aggressive approach in this regard.

The Telangana Congress which lost the support of Muslims is unable to win them back and suffered major setbacks in all the elections held in recent past in the State.

Except in general elections to the Parliament, this year the party fared poorly in the other elections, due to the absence of the support of Muslims. The Muslims who form 15 per cent of the State population are strong enough to tilt the scales.

Party leaders have accepted that Congress lost most of the 40 Assembly constituencies where the Muslims population is more than the state's average. Especially in Hyderabad the Congress was deprived of their support.

They said that the party made several efforts in the previous general elections to the Assembly. It has appointed former Indian Cricket captain Mohammad Azaharuddin as working president of PCC.

It has announces sub plan for the Muslims and made several promises to them in that election. It tried to attract the Muslims by criticizing the TRS for its failure in providing 12 per cent reservations to the community.

However, they said, these efforts have not given any mileage to the Congress in winning back the Muslim voters. As the municipal elections would be held in next January, Congress has to start efforts to regain the confidence of Muslims.

They pointed out that most of the towns in the State have a good number of Muslim population and their support is needed for the Congress to win majority of the municipalities and corporations.

The leaders said that controversy on the Citizenship Amendment Act has come in handy for the party in its endeavors to win back the confidence of the minority community. Keeping this in view the party is severely criticising BJP, TRS and the MIM and trying to expose them among the people.