Ahmedabad, Dec 11 (Zee News): With the last phase of polling remaining in Gujarat Assembly elections, both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seem to be leaving no stone unturned to ensure their victory. The campaigning for the polls has witnessed several exchanges of jibes and allegations, and an equal share of controversies.
The latest in the list of controversies is a poster of Rahul Gandhi with Salman Nizami, who BJP claims is a member of the Congress party.
The poster carries a photograph of the Congress vice president with Nizami and the text on it says – “Afzal (Guru) ka jo yaar hai, woh desh ka gaddaar hai” (a friend of Afzal Guru is a traitor). It further claims that the photograph was taken when Nizami was campaigning for the Congress party in Gujarat.
The posters, which have been put up in Ahmedabad, have been attributed to one Sardar Patel Ekta Manch.
A tweet of Nizami is also printed on the poster, in which he has openly supported Parliament attack mastermind Afzal Guru.
Earlier on Saturday, Nizami had tweeted: "Rahul Gandhi, son of Rajiv Gandhi. Sacrificed his life for India. Rahul Gandhi, grandson of Indira Gandhi. Sacrificed her life for India. Rahul Gandhi, grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, fought for India`s independence. Narendra Modi, son of ...? Grandson of ...?"
However, the Congress party has said that they don`t have a leader or worker named Nizami.
Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah have used the name of Salman Nizami and his origin from Kashmir at their rallies to attack the Congress party.
Claiming that the Congress has deployed Nizami to campaign in Gujarat, Shah had said that "Nizami believes in freedom of Kashmir and has made statements that Afzals (Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru) would be born in every home of the state."
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had targeted him saying that the “youth leader” had tweeted about him, asking who his father and mother were. The PM had said, “Such languages can’t be used even for enemies”.