Refuting Maneka Gandhi's contention that Muslims do not vote for BJP, three senior party leaders on Saturday said it should not take the stand that votes of a particular community were not important.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and Maharashtra BJP leader Gopinath Munde said during the open debate in BJP National Executive meet that it was wrong for the BJP to take the stand that people from a particular community did not vote for the party and so it could be ignored.

Maneka had said on Saturday that the Muslims were not the core constituency of the BJP and therefore those party leaders who had blamed her son Varun Gandhi's alleged hate speeches for the party's poll debacle were wrong.

She had said there were other reasons like late distribution of tickets in Uttar Pradesh and the failure of the election-in-charge in doing his job.

When asked, Chouhan refused to give details of his intervention during the debate.

However, sources confirmed that Chouhan felt it was incorrect to ignore a particular community which has a sizable vote bank.

Sushil Modi toed the line taken by his Chief Minister and JD-U leader Nitish Kumar on wooing the minority community. Kumar has made several overtures to the Muslims in the recent past and has even tried to distance himself from the BJP's stand on the Ram temple and other such contentious issues. He had also told the BJP that he did not want Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has a Hindu hardliner image, to campaign in Bihar.

Munde's statement echoes the BJP's Maharashtra unit sentiment that Muslim votes could be crucial for the party in the forthcoming assembly elections.

Maneka had also made an apparent attack on chief strategist Arun Jaitley who was also the election in charge for Uttar Pradesh.

Varun kept away from today's open debate. The first-time MP from Pilibhit was the target of attack by BJP leaders Shahnawaz Hussain and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi at the office bearers meeting on Friday. The two contended that the BJP lost several seats in Uttar Pradesh due to polarisation of votes after Varun's speeches.