IndiaTomorrow.net,

New Delhi, March 18: India's largest socio-religious Muslim organization has appealed to Muslims in the country, especially those living in Uttar Pradesh, not to lose heart and hope over the recent Assembly election results.

"The recent Assembly election results are surprising and Muslims' concern over the outcomes is natural in view of the anti-Muslim policies of BJP. It is indeed a tough time, but Muslims should face it with courage," said Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari, National President, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind here on Saturday hours after Hindutva firebrand politician Yogi Adityanath was elected chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

"There can be many reasons for this situation. Unity is required to achieve any goal and also there is a gap between Muslims and other communities which sometimes create doubts and issues among them. It should be our prime responsibility to bridge such gapes for better understanding and communication," said Maulana Umari.

"We are citizens of this country, and we have rights and freedoms like others and we should use them. Like others we should be ready to face all types of situations here," he said.

In the recent UP Assembly elections, BJP won 312 seats in the 403-Member Assembly. As the non-BJP parties received huge defeat, Muslim representation also went down from 68 MLAs in the last assembly to just 24 this time.

More shocking for Muslims was the huge victory of BJP in Muslim-dominated constituencies in the Western Uttar Pradesh.

Besides UP, BJP won elections in Uttarakhand also and was able to form government in Goa and Manipur though it was at No. 2 in both states.

Maulan Umari said that BJP won in UP mainly because of division of non-BJP votes but he also said that BJP has worked hard for the last 70-80 years and it has not got success overnight.