A day after releasing the final list of candidates for the Bihar assembly election, the Congress party was attacked by the BJP for fielding former Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) student leader Maskoor Usmani as a candidate.
Congress and Mahagathbandhan leaders have to answer the country if the Jale candidate supports Jinnah. Congress and Mahagathabndhan have to tell if they also support Jinnah? Will Sharjeel Imam be their star campaigner?” BJP leader and Union minister Giriraj Singh said Friday.
Recently, R S Rurjewala took to Twitter and replied saying, “BJP is preparing controversy in hatred factory, to divert attention. Our Jale candidate never aligned with Jinnah’s ideology. When he was an AMU student, he wrote to PM for removal of Jinnah’s portrait from AMU, Parliament & Bombay HC. But PM Modi never responded.”
BJP is preparing controversy in hatred factory, to divert attention. Our Jale candidate never aligned with Jinnah's ideology. When he was an AMU student, he wrote to PM for removal of Jinnah's portrait from AMU, Parliament & Bombay HC. But PM Modi never responded: RS Surjewala https://t.co/Tcc3kqW9zN pic.twitter.com/syKc7uuShN
— ANI (@ANI) October 17, 2020
Usmani will be contesting from Jale constituency in Darbhanga district of Bihar. Upset over not being given a ticket, Rishi Mishra, son of former Union Minister L.N Mishra, questioned the Congress leadership for giving a ticket to “anti-national and Jinnah worshipper”.
Usmani got fame in May 2018 when the AMU found itself mired in a controversy over a portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the university premises. Violence had erupted in the university campus after the then BJP Aligarh MP Satish Gautam wrote to the university vice-chancellor objecting to the portrait.
“I had just written a letter to PM Modi at the time, asking him why the portrait is a problem when it is a part of the legacy, and when it is hanging in other important institutions too such as the Bombay High Court. I never got a response, but they made me out to be a Jinnah-supporter,” Usmani said.
Usmani said that the BJP is afraid of how the Congress is “giving an opportunity to young Muslims” in the state polls.
