MODI’S MESSENGER

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s close confidant Zafar Sareshwala is meeting prominent Muslim personalities in Uttar Pradesh, indicating how the announcement of an SP-BSP tie-up for the Lok Sabha poll has spooked the BJP about consolidation of minority votes. Sareshwala, a former chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University, held a closed-door meeting with All India Muslim Personal Law Board president Maulana Rabey Hasani Nadvi on January 4. They discussed the political situation and the Modi government’s efforts to better the lot of minorities. Next on Sareshwala’s itinerary are meetings with Muslim clerics in Bareilly and Deoband.