New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on December 7 said the Gujarat Assembly elections would be a "positive turning point" for minorities, especially Muslims, as the party's return to power would guarantee their safety and security.

"The present election has risen above fatwas and for Muslims specially, it is a positive turning point as BJP has always concentrated on social and economic issues and worked towards bringing the minorities into the social mainstream," party spokesman and general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters.

Hitting out at the Congress for seeking votes of Muslims by "playing on their emotions", he said the result would be a lesson for those who have been "using minorities as a vote bank".

While in Jammu and Kashmir Congress bowed to the terrorists' demand and did not oppose their release, in the case of Godhra the party was silent, he said, adding not one Muslim leader has campaigned for the Congress in Gujarat.

Asked why the two BJP Muslim leaders Shahnawaz Hussain and himself did not campaign in Gujarat, Naqvi said he was busy tying up the programmes of central leaders' tour of the state while Hussain was busy with his ministerial work.

PTI