BJP will not give ticket to Muslims as they do not believe in us: KS Eshwarappa
Bengaluru, Apr 2: Senior Karnataka BJP leader and former deputy chief minister K S Eshwarappa has said his party will not give tickets to Muslims to contest the elections as they do not believe in the party.
"We will not give...We will not give ticket to Muslims in Karnataka. Why? (because) you do not believe in us. If you believe and vote us, if you understand us, we will see," Eshwarappa said on Monday at Koppal.
He also alleged that the Congress party has only used Muslims as a "vote bank."
However, the senior leader from the Kuruba community Tuesday clarified that he was not a hater of any community including Muslims and his statement was in response to a specific question about Iqbal Ansari, a political leader from the district, getting ticket from the BJP.
"Correction:I'm not a hater of any community including Muslims. My statement was about a question asked will Iqbal Ansari get ticket from BJP?
Dear Media,
— Chowkidar K S Eshwarappa (@ikseshwarappa) April 2, 2019
Please dont add communcal
Colors to my statements.
Correction: I am not the hater of any community including Muslims. My statement was about a question asked about will "Iqbal ansari" get ticket from BJP?
Please dont try to twist my statement about an individual.
Whenever a new person joins he is not given any post,he has to work hard and earn the post, similarly I had mentioned about Iqbal Ansari," Eshwarappa tweeted, reacting to a media report on his statement.
"Dear Media, Please don't add communal Colors to my statements.
My statement was about a question asked about will Iqbal Ansari get ticket from BJP? Please don't try to twist my statement about an individual," he said in another tweet.
Karnataka will go to Lok Sabha polls in two phases, 14 constituencies each, on April 18 and 23.
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Bengal MLA Humayun Kabir floats new party days after laying foundation for Babri-style mosque
Beldanga (WB), Dec 22 (PTI): West Bengal MLA Humayun Kabir on Monday floated a new outfit, Janata Unnayan Party, days after he was suspended by the TMC for laying the foundation stone for a Babri-style mosque in Murshidabad district.
Addressing a public meeting in Beladanga, Kabir named eight candidates that his new party will field in the 2026 assembly elections in the state.
Kabir, the MLA of Bharatpur, said he would contest the assembly polls from two seats, Rejinagar and Beldanga in Murshidabad.
"We can only tell you later how many seats we will be finally contesting," he told the gathering.
Kabir said his mission is to oust Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from power in the assembly polls, which will be due in less than six months.
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"Mamata Banerjee is no longer the same person I knew. She is beyond the reach of the common man," he alleged.
The BJP alleged Kabir was working to help the TMC return to power.
"Kabir will not be a factor in the next assembly polls. He will face the drubbing of the electorate along with his old friend TMC, with which he is still in touch in a clandestine manner. Both Kabir and his new party will be rejected by the people of Bengal," state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya claimed.
He claimed Kabir was attempting to split "BJP votes" in the assembly polls.
"In the wake of the situation in Bangladesh, people of Bengal will thwart Kabir's attempts and elect a strong nationalist force like the BJP, only which can defeat fundamentalists," he claimed.
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The TMC is yet to comment on Kabir's new party.
The TMC had suspended Kabir on December 4 after his announcement to build a Babri-style mosque triggered a massive row.
On December 6, the day the Babri Masjid was razed in Ayodhya in 1992, a defiant Kabir laid the foundation stone for the mosque at Rejinagar.
Kabir has had a tryst with most of the major political parties in the state over the last 10 years.
In 2015, he was "expelled" by the TMC for six years for criticising the CM and alleging that she was trying to make her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, the "king".
He contested the 2016 assembly elections as an Independent from the Rejinagar seat, but lost to Congress candidate Rabiul Alam Chowdhury. He subsequently joined the Congress, which then had a huge presence in the district, but switched to the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP fielded him as its candidate in the Murshidabad Lok Sabha seat, and managed to secure the third spot after the TMC and Congress nominees. He then returned to the TMC and, in 2021, became the MLA of Bharatpur.
