Ram Satpute, BJP candidate from Solapur Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra, has alleged that ‘fatwas’ were being issued from mosques in Solapur to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the agency reported. PTI news.
Satpute, who is contesting against Congress’s Praniti Shinde, daughter of veteran leader Sushilkumar Shinde, made the claim while speaking to a Marathi news channel, PTI reported.
“Fatwas are being issued from mosques in Solapur to defeat Modi ji. The Maulavis are reaching out to voters asking them to defeat Modi ji,” he said, PTI reported.
Meanwhile, BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde on Tuesday claimed that like former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s “agenda” is that minorities should have the first right to the wealth of the country, and not the tribals or the Dalits, he reported. PTI.
He was responding to a question on the NCP manifesto led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, a BJP ally, which mentions a caste-based census. Congress has also been demanding such a survey.
“Caste-based census is not Rahul Gandhi’s agenda. His agenda is what Manmohan Singh had stated earlier – minorities have the first right to the country’s wealth,” Tawde told reporters.
The BJP welcomes anyone to debate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments in this regard, Tawde added.
“I am using the words minorities; he (Manmohan Singh) had said very clearly that Adivasis and Dalits would not get anything. And there is no comment on this from Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, (Mallikarjun) Kharge, which means who approve Does it mean that (Maharashtra Congress president) Nana Patole and his allies Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray also want the same thing as Singh had said?
Asked about the opposition’s allegation that the BJP lowered the level of the contest with the unopposed election in the Surat Lok Sabha constituency, Tawde said: “If a candidate files nomination papers with errors, it does not mean that campaign standards have been lowered. We had even requested that independent candidates withdraw their nominations before submitting their candidacy. How can such a request be classified as a lowering of campaign standards?
The BJP candidate was declared winner in Surat after his Congress rival’s nomination was rejected as his proponents repudiated his signatures on the form and all other candidates subsequently withdrew from the race.
Tawde also alleged that South Goa Congress candidate Viriato Fernandes had said that the country’s Constitution should not be applicable to Goa.
“A Congress leader in Karnataka also made a similar statement. It is a fact that the country’s Constitution was amended 80 times during the Congress regime…Prime Minister Narendra Modi initiated the Constitution Day celebration. Unfortunately, Rahul Gandhi is “We continually try to deceive people. When there is no other issue, the Congress starts a conversation on changing the Constitution,” the BJP leader said.
(With input from PTI)