Muslims voted en-masse for Congress in Bidar: Karnataka minister Zameer

Karnataka minister for Housing, Waqf, and Minority Affairs Zameer Ahmed Khan triggered yet another row on Tuesday, attributing the handsome margin of victory with which the Congress candidate in Bidar, Sagar Khandre, won the Lok Sabha polls to the overwhelming support the party received from the Muslim community.

Of the total of six lakh votes that Sagar Khandre polled in the elections, two lakh were cast by members of the Muslim community, who voted en-masse for the Congress candidate, Khan said. The community can now appeal to Sagar Khandre seeking help to either resolve any issue, or to attend to any of its problems.  

The Karnataka minister had, during a rally held in the run-up to the assembly elections in Telangana, said, “BJP leaders had to bow before a Muslim Speaker.” The remark had drawn sharp criticism from leaders of the saffron party, accusing Khan of insulting a ‘Constitutional Post’ in his bid to appease the minority community. 

On Tuesday, Khan said that Sagar’s victory had denied the BJP the chance to score a hat-trick in Bidar. “We are happy that the Congress has won the Bidar seat this year. Against that backdrop, I had said that our work (that of Muslims) will be done. What is wrong with that,” asked Khan, adding, however, that the Congress had also received the backing of other communities in the election. 

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in the assembly R Ashoka said that Khan, who was yet to apologise for his earlier comments, had yet again displayed his arrogance, and culture. “Such an individual who is uncultured, and with views opposed to the spirit of the Constitution, is unfit to enter the assembly. I hereby appeal to the assembly speaker to bar him from entering the house,” Ashoka said.