Ranchi:A Congress MLA stoked a controversy describing Mahagama assembly constituency in Jharkhand's Godda district as a 'mini Pakistan'. Jamtara MLA Irfan Ansari Ansari is said to have made these remarks while making a statement urging the electorate to prevent re-election of BJP MP Nishikant Dubey who has been elected from the Godda Lok Sabha seat.
The legislator who is certified physician had said that a Muslim candidate will have to be fielded from Godda so as to defeat Dubey who is likely to contest again on a BJP ticket for the Lok Sabha polls. "Everyone knows that Madhupur, Jarmundi, Mahagama and Godda have a large number of Muslim voters. Mahagama area is called mini Pakistan because of the large population of Muslims," Ansari was quoted as saying by IANS.
Responding to the remarks of the Congress MLA, the BJP and the Opposition unleashed a volley of attacks on the MLA. Dubey who was the main topic of the MLAs speech said the statement from Ansari lays bare the agenda of the JMM and the Congress. Opposition blamed it on the Congress MLA's ideology for making such a remark.
"The main objective of Mahagama MLA Dipika Pandey Singh, Poreyahat MLA Pradeep Yadav and Pakur MLA Alamgir Alam is to increase the Muslim population here and use it as a vote bank in elections. Irfan Ansari's father Furkan Ansari also used to do the same," the Godda MP claimed. According to Dubey, Madhupur assembly has become Muslim majority. Former Jharkhand CM and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Babulal Marandi maintained that the statement from the Congress MLA reflects the latter's ideology.
Defending his remarks, Irfan Ansari said that what he referred to in his speech is nothing but repeating the remarks from the BJP lot. "I had said that the people of BJP call Pakur and Sahebganj as 'Bangladesh' and Mahagama as 'mini Pakistan'. The BJP people are doing politics against me by distorting my statement," Ansari said. (with Agency inputs)
