No to Muslim candidate for by-election, says Minister
No to Muslim candidate for by-election, says Minister
25th Dec 2020
Sajeda Haider
A minister in the Indian state of Karnataka has openly declared that Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s ruling-Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is Islamophobic. Kuruba Sharanappa Eshwarappa, Minister for Rural Development in the southern federal state has categorically announced that the BJP will not field a Muslim candidate for the Parliamentary by-elections.
“Whether we give (candidature) to Kurubas or Lingayats or Vokkaligas or Brahmins (Hindu castes), we will not give to a Muslim”, declared the Minister. The Parliamentary seat of Belagavi in Karnataka fell vacant when the sitting BJP MP Suresh Angadi, also a junior minister in the Modi government, died of Covid-19 in September.