Uttar Pradesh, May 26: Ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha by-poll in Uttar Pradesh's Kairana, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy said that Muslims are afraid of the former. This remark came in connection with Deobandi Ulema's jibe at BJP, accusing the latter of flaring up communal disharmony and appealing to the voters to elect Rashtriya Lok Dal's Tabassum Hassan.

"Muslims are sad that we have abolished triple talaq, which was their only means to suppress women. That is why they are afraid of BJP. In the last four years, we have not let any riot happen in the community, unlike the Congress regime. The Muslims think if the BJP stays in power they cannot suppress the other Muslims any longer. They don't want Muslims to be modern and that is why they are targeting the BJP," said Swamy.

Sharing her thoughts on the issue, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi called such an accusation ahead of the by-poll completely unconstitutional. "A few months ago a pending matter was before the Supreme Court regarding using religion at the time of elections. The Election Commission should take this into cognizance because this is against the constitutional mandate. People cannot be voted in or out or discriminated on religion. This usage is completely unconstitutional," she said.

These comments came after a Deobandi ulema from Saharanpur accused the BJP of creating communal disharmony. Supporting the alliance of Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal, he appealed to the voters to vote for candidate Tabassum Hasan. He said that the BJP has not been able to benefit the voters of the country and has only created an atmosphere of communal disharmony. The Kairana by-election comes after the BJP's loss in the Gorakhpur by-poll in the state.

The by-poll was necessitated by the death of BJP Leader Hukum Singh, and his daughter Mriganka Singh became the normal choice for BJP to battle it out in the communally charged Kairana. The Kairana Lok Sabha seat has around 17 lakh voters, including three lakh Muslims, four lakh backward castes (Jat, Gujjar, Saini, Kashyap, Prajapati, and others) and about 1.5 lakh Dalits. Voting for the Kairana by-polls will be held on May 28 and the results will be declared on May 31.

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