Kolkata, Nov 23 (IANS): West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress MP from Basirhat Nusrat Jahan slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for using religion as a political tool to consolidate their support base ahead of the state assembly elections.

She also spoke about 'love-jihad' dubbing it two separate things which have no correlation. The Trinamool parliamentarian said that "love" and "jihad" are two different things which do not go hand-in-hand. She said it is a matter of personal choice who wants to be with whom.

"Love is very personal. Love and jihad don't go hand-in-hand. Just before polls, people come up with topics like this. It is a personal choice who you want to be with. Be in love and start falling in love with each other. Don't make religion a political tool," Jahan said in reply to a question during a media interaction here.

The Bengali actor-turned-politician is married to businessman Nikhil Jain.

Earlier, Jahan had participated in the festivities of Durga Puja for which she came under severe attacks by radical Islamists for committing a 'sin' and bringing disrepute to Islam.

The issue was that the actress was seen playing the dhaak, folding hands before Goddess Durga and dancing to the beats of dhak (improvised drums) in celebration of Bengali's biggest festival Durga Puja this year.