India News | BJP Accuses SP of Holding Political Meet in Mosque Near Parliament, Akhilesh Hits Back
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. With the BJP accusing it of holding a political meeting inside a mosque here, the Samajwadi Party on Wednesday said it was a social gathering and the ruling party was misleading people to divert attention from real issues like electoral rolls revision in Bihar and "intelligence failure" in the Pahalgam attack.
New Delhi, Jul 23 (PTI) With the BJP accusing it of holding a political meeting inside a mosque here, the Samajwadi Party on Wednesday said it was a social gathering and the ruling party was misleading people to divert attention from real issues like electoral rolls revision in Bihar and "intelligence failure" in the Pahalgam attack.
A photograph of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, party MPs Mohibulla Nadvi, who is also Imam of the mosque near Parliament, Dimple Yadav, Dharmendra Yadav, Zia ur Rahman Barq, among others, sitting in the mosque, was shared by BJP leaders who claimed that it was a political meeting.
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BJP's IT department head Amit Malviya said Akhilesh Yadav held a political meeting at the mosque near Parliament.
"These are the same people who distanced themselves from the grand inauguration of the Ram Temple (22 January 2024), calling it a 'political project'...This is not 'secularism', but hypocrisy for the sake of vote bank," Malviya said on X, sharing a picture of the meeting.
Asked about the BJP's charge, Akhilesh Yadav said, "The BJP is a group of people of negative mindset. Faith is positive, it unites. The BJP gets upset with anything that unites. They want negativity, faith is for positive people. Faith unites, ensures brotherhood, it increases love and respect among people."
Faith and any religious place can never promote negativity, he told reporters in the Parliament House Complex.
"We do politics of uniting people, bringing them together," he said.
Speaking with reporters on the same issue, Dimple Yadav said, "Imam sahab is our MP, his wife was also there, we had gone for a social (gathering), there was no meeting."
"The BJP always tries to mislead to divert from real issues. The government neither wants to speak on SIR nor on the intelligence failure in the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor. In order to hide facts, such things are being said," she said.
BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari also shared the photograph of SP leaders at the mosque and claimed that the Samajwadi party is "blatantly anti-Hindu".
"SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav holds a political meeting inside the mosque near Parliament. This is the same leader who boycotted the grand inauguration of the Ram Mandir on 22nd January 2024, dismissing it as a 'political project'," Bhandari said.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)