November 28, 2024 21:26 (IST)
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TMC leader Firhad Hakim's "mini Pakistan" remark about his constituency sparks row
Kolkata, Apr 30 (IBNS) Trinamool Congress leader Firhad Hakim's remarks to describe his Muslim-dominated assembly constituency Garden Reach as a "mini Pakistan" to a Pakistani journalist has triggered a huge row with the BJP immediately slamming the TMC legislator and minister and taking a dig at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Pakistan's Dawn covering Bengal elections began a story quoting Hakim where he allegedly describes the Garden Reach area as mini Pakistan.
"'Please come along and let us take you to mini-Pakistan in Kolkata,' says Bobby Firhad Hakim, MLA candidate of the incumbent party in West Bengal, All India Trinamool Congress, which is on its last leg of its canvassing and voters decide the party’s fate in the phase-wise West Bengal assembly elections scheduled to be held on April 30 and May 5," the Dawn story by Maleeha Hamid Siddiqui starts.
While Hakim was quoted in a daily saying tht raising this issue is a "blatant attempt to foment communal tension ahead of the polls", the BJP was quick to seize the issue.
BJP leader and In-charge of BJP's national IT Amit Malviya tweeted: "TMC leader Bobby Hakim thinks that Port area is mini Pakistan....... Mamata didi would be proud."
West Bengal is undergoing its sixth phase of assembly polls Saturday witnessing a contest between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the alliance of Left and Congress while the BJP is the third force in the election scene.
Garden Reach is one of the constituencies going to polls on Saturday.
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