Bihar BJP chief Nityanand Rai

Patna : Bihar BJP chief Nityanand Rai’s remarks linking a Muslim Lok Sabha candidate for Sunday’s by-election with the Islamic State has “exposed the communal mindset” of the ruling party, the RJD said on Saturday.

Rai on Friday sparked a major row when he told an election rally that if RJD’s Sarfaraz Alam won the by-poll in Bihar’s Araria district, it would become the global terror group’s safe hub.

The Araria Lok Sabha constituency, where some 41 per cent of electors are Muslim, goes to polls along with two assembly seats on Sunday.

Senior RJD leader Shivanand Tiwary said that in the past also BJP leaders had made such kind of statements to polarise voters in the state, recalling BJP President Amit Shah’s 2015 statement that if his party lost the Bihar assembly polls, firecrackers would burst in celebration in Pakistan.

“To palarise voters in favour of the BJP, Amit Shah stated during campaign then that if the BJP is defeated and does not form a government, firecrackers will be burst in Pakistan,” said Tiwary.

Rai in his campaign speech said nationalism would be strengthened if BJP’s Pradeep Kumar Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha.

Interestingly, Sarfaraz Alam was BJP ally JD-U’s legislator till last month when he quit and joined the RJD to contest the by-election. The Araria Lok Sabha seat fell vacant after his father Mohammad Taslimuddin, RJD MP, died last year.

—IANS