‘BJP has no Muslim MP in either House of Parl, PM’s Cabinet’

Kolkata: Refuting the claims of the BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari that Mamata Banerjee is merely using the Muslims as vote banks, Trinamool Congress (TMC) has sought to remind him that BJP being the ruling party in India does not have a single member from the minority community in either House of the Parliament and nor does the Prime Minister’s Cabinet have any ministers from the community.

Adhikari alleged that in a bid to accommodate the former state chief secretary H K Dwivedi, who is now the finance adviser to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, three prominent Muslim leaders of TMC have been asked to shift out of the eight-bedroom 7000 sqft palatial government bungalow near the Quest Mall, in Park Circus, at 62 Syed Amir Ali Avenue. He said the present occupants who have been asked to move out “unceremoniously” are: Janab Akhruzzaman, Minister of State (MoS), Power department, Janab Giasuddin Molla, MLA & former MoS for Minority Affairs department and Begum Sabina Yeasmin, MoS, Irrigation & Waterways department.

He wrote on X: “This is the true nature of Mamata Banerjee. Muslim leaders are mere faces, needed to glossify the secular facade of the TMC Party and attract Muslim Votes. When the cameras are off, they are treated with indignity and disrespect. Why else these Muslim Ministers & MLAs only have been shown the door to accommodate a tainted Retired Official? Despite the fact that these Ministers and MLAs are from the districts and don’t have residences in Kolkata.” Adhikari said that the retired official (H K Dwivedi) already owns two private residences in New Town.

Hitting back at Adhikari, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet has 28 ministers, 45 Ministers of State and two MoS (independent charge) and yet not a single Muslim member. He also claimed that for the first time in history the ruling party in India has no Muslim MP in either House of the Parliament. Ghosh wrote on X: “PM@narendramodi’s Council of Ministers, comprises 28 Cabinet Ministers, 45 MoS and 2 MoS (IC). But there is not a single Muslim member. For the first time in history, the ruling party has no Muslim MP in either house of the parliament. On the one hand leaders like you blindly parrot ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’ and on the other this is the dismal state of representation in your party. On the one hand you call us Muslim appeasing and on the other, you accuse us of not treating our Muslim brethren with dignity. How do you not see the glaring contradictions in your logic?”