As campaigning intensifies ahead of the first rounds of voting next week, the election has become a battle for the Muslim vote, which critics say the Congress Party has taken for granted for decades.
Now many Muslim leaders across the country are torn between a fear of Modi's reputation as a Hindu nationalist and his record as a Chief Minister who has brought higher living standards for Muslims in Gujurat.
In an attempt to staunch the flow of Muslim support towards the BJP, Gandhi met the Shahi Imam and several other leading maulanas in New Delhi along with her political secretary Ahmed Patel, an influential Muslim figure in the Congress leadership. Following the meeting she said her Government had been thwarted in its attempts to help poor Muslims, who have lower living standards than Hindus, but appealed to the Muslim community to safeguard "secularism" from Modi's Hindu nationalist alliance.
"One of the main reasons I entered politics was to safeguard and promote secularism," she told Imam Bukhari.
Rashid Alvi, a Muslim Congress MP, said: "This is a fight between secularism and communalism, so she definitely has made an appeal to secular parties against Mr Modi. This time Bukhari is supporting Congress."
Imam Bukhari's support is regarded as a minor coup, particularly in Uttar Pradesh where his support for the Samajwadi Party helped it boost its Muslim vote and win control of the state assembly.
The focus on the Muslim vote comes as some senior Muslims have criticised the Congress Party for failing to end discrimination against and poverty among Muslims and called for greater engagement with the BJP.
They believe their community's failure to join the party in significant numbers and its traditional allegiance to Congress has weakened its bargaining power.
Former Samajwadi Party MP and Urdu newspaper editor, Shaheed Siddiqui, said it was time for Muslims to overcome their fear of the BJP.
"The Muslims should not be the political slaves of one party because that one party has taken them for a ride. To be empowered is to have options and the only other option is the BJP. The time has come for Muslims to open their options and become as much a part of the BJP as any other party," he said.
M.J Akbar, a leading newspaper editor and former spokesman to the late Congress Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, who recently joined the BJP, said Muslims should have a more transactional relationship with political parties.
"Why don't Muslims get jobs in India? Other communities switch their vote depending on whether parties have worked for them. Muslims must now vote for whoever can deliver best on the economy," he said.
Muktar Abbas Naqvi, a Shia Muslim MP and BJP general secretary, said: " ... the average Muslim in Gujarat is better off. In comparison with other Muslim areas in India, Muslims in Gujarat are richer. We hope this time large numbers of Muslims will vote positively for the BJP," he said.
