"Congress conspiring with divisive, conservative Muslim elements": BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad

New Delhi [India], November 12 : Bharatiya Janata Party MP Ravi Shankar Prasad hit out at the Congress party on Tuesday of conspiring with conservative and divisive elements within the Muslim community to gain votes in the upcoming Jharkhand and Maharashtra elections.
"The BJP is very clear that the Congress party is conspiring with all the conservative, divisive elements in the Muslim community for the sake of votes as they are apprehensive about their imminent defeat," said Prasad.
He alleged that Congress have a problem with unity and is conspiring with forces who want to break the country and emphasized that the BJP stands for unity, citing PM Modi's slogan "Ek rahenge toh safe rahenge."
"PM Modi says 'Ek rahenge toh safe rahenge' and they (Congress) are making fun of it and knocking on the doors of the Election Commission. They have a problem with unity and are conspiring with forces who want to break the country...," added the BJP MP.
In a press conference, the MP claimed that Marathi Muslim Seva Sangh has supported the opposition coalition Maha Vikas Agadhi in Maharashtra.
"You would remember how a few days ago in another conference we had raised the issue of the All India Ulema Board, and today too, we have this flyer by Marathi Muslim Seva Sangh, there are a lot of issues being talked about here, it is being forcefully pushed. Congress party and its alliance party are trying to get the muslim vote and pushing this agenda, this is what we are accusing them of. In many places, NGOs are being made and other work is being done," he said during the conference.
Earlier, on November 6, Congress had denied any letter being sent by the All India Ulema Board to their state party's president Nana Patole, saying that no such letter was sent and Patole's signatures were fake. In a post on X, the Maharashtra Congress said that the Mahayuti alliance was resorting to lies in desperation seeing that it was losing the Maharashtra assembly polls.
"With defeat in sight, the corrupt alliance Mahayuti has started trying to mislead people by creating fake photos of things that never happened, and letters that were never sent. Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patoleji's signature was also forged on this letter. But no matter how many lies you tell, the truth will always come out," said the post written in Marathi.
Regarding the Jharkhand elections, the MP held up a letter allegedly issued by the Jamiat Ulama's unit in Lohardaga town in Jharkhand.
According to Prasad, the letter urged Muslims to unite and vote for the INDIA alliance, as the community is being harassed by using the laws of uniform civil code, NRC and Waqf.
Quoting the alleged letter, Prasad said, "Looking at the situation in the country... the way NCR, Uniform Civil Code, Waqf laws are being used to make Muslims scared, and how they are being threatened by using the excuse of infiltrators in Jharkhand, so looking at this, the Jamiat Ulama is requesting Muslims to unite and give their votes to the INDIA gatbandhan," he said purportedly reading the letter.
The BJP MP also highlighted Priyanka Gandhi's upcoming Wayanad electoral fight, "Priyanka Gandhi, who is fighting the elections from Wayanad, and taking her support from Jamaat-e-Islami, that we are not saying, Kerala's CM is saying."