Bhopal:Fatima Rasool Siddique, the BJP's lone Muslim candidate in the last year's Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, on Thursday announced she will not campaign for Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, the saffron party's Lok Sabha nominee from Bhopal.
Siddique, who unsuccessfully contested Assembly polls from the Bhopal North seat in November last year, said some of the statements given by Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon bomb blast case of 2008, after her candidature was announced were "communal and obnoxious".
"I won't campaign for her as she has made statements like waging a 'dharm yudh' (crusade). Her controversial statement against former Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad
(ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, a martyr who laid down his life fighting terrorists in the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, has also hurt me badly," the 35-year-old said.
"Pragya's statements about dharm yudh and against Karkare have not gone down well in my community also," she said. Siddique said the 49-year-old right-wing activist's remarks have also tarnished the image of BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
"Her statements have damaged the image of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who has good connect with Muslims," said the daughter of Rasool Ahmed Siddique, a Congress leader and
former Cabinet minister in the state.