A day after the BJP leaders including the union ministers launched a vilification campaign against Congress’s youth leader and former Aligarh Muslim University Students’ Union president Maskoor Usmani, he wrote a letter to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and said that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would be held responsible if his safety was compromised during the course of the Bihar elections.
The vocal Muslim student leader Usmani will be contesting from Jale constituency in Darbhanga district of Bihar.
On Friday, BJP Begusarai MP and Union minister of state Giriraj Singh took on the candidature of Usmani and asked whether the Grand Alliance supported the ideology of the Pakistan leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
“Congress and Grand Alliance 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?” Singh said Friday.
In the letter to Nitish Kumar, Usmani expressed fears of a possible attack in the future and asked the state administration to treat the matter as a serious case.
Usmani also cited various television media reports and stated that they were broadcast in an attempt to influence the election results.
He said he shall file a defamation case against the media houses.
“But their reports have put my life in danger. My well-wishers fear that I may be targeted during the course of the elections,” he added.
“If such a thing happens in the future, then the NDA will be held responsible. That’s why it is my earnest request that this matter is taken up seriously and that I be provided with adequate security,” reads the letter.
In 2018, BJP leaders lanuched a campaign during Usmani’s term as head of the AMU students’ union against Aligarh Muslim University and a BJP MP had demanded removal of Jinnah’s photo from the students’ union office. However the varsity administration had defended the photo, pointing out that Jinnah was the founder member of the University Court and granted life membership of its students’ union.
“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 Prime Minister Modi for removal of Jinnah’s portrait from AMU, Parliament and Bombay High Court. But Prime Minister never responded,”said Congress General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala on Saturday.
Assembly elections in Bihar will be held in three phases on October 28, November 3 and 7. The counting of votes will take place on November 10.
