NEW DELHI: After winning the Lok Sabha elections, Uttar Pradesh’s BJP, Smaajwadi Party candidates rake up Jinnah, Vande Mataram issue.
After winning Lok Sabha elections from Aligarh for the second consecutive time, Satish Kumar Gautam of BJP said that his first priority is to “send the portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) to Pakistan”.
“Among my priorities is to send the portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah which is locked inside a room in AMU to Pakistan,” said Gautam while talking to ANI.
Gautam secured 656215 votes defeating BSP candidate Ajeet Baliyan who bagged 426954 votes. BJP had won Aligarh seat five times in a row from 1991 to 2001 in the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress won back this seat in 2004 and lost it to the BSP in 2009.
The BJP secured the Aligarh seat in 2014 when Satish Kumar Gautam defeated his BSP rival by over 2.87 lakh votes.
While Samajwadi Party’s Shafiqur Rahman Barq, sparked off a controversy by saying that he would never utter Vande Mataram when he takes oath in the Parliament.
Barq, the MP-elect from Sambhal said: “I am a ‘desh bhakt’ (patriot) and have always worked for the well-being of my country and its people. I am firm on my stand that I will not sing ‘Vande Matram’ even in parliament,” as per Hindustan Times reports.
In 2013 too, Barq, left the Lok Sabha as Vande Mataram was being played with all members standing in attention, prompting an angry rebuke from Speaker Meira Kumar.