Kolkata: A day after TMC leader Sheikh Alam said "if 30 per cent of the Muslim population come together then we can create 4 new Pakistans", Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday sent a show cause notice to Alam for his comments.
Relying to the Election Commission, Alam said that his comments are being ‘misinterpreted’. “I meant to stay that though a minority in number but if the Muslims stand united we can build a nation. However, I am being misinterpreted,” claimed Alam apologizing for his comments.
At a time when the saffron camp’s claim that the ruling Trinamool Congress plays ‘appeasement politics’ for which the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee restricts immersion of Durga Puja due to Muharram, a video on Thursday had gone viral in which Sheikh Alam is seen making the controversial statement at Basapara in Birbhum district.
On the other hand, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Nandigram election agent Sheikh Supian appealed to the Supreme Court against the revival of FIRs against him.
However, in a relief to the election agent of the West Bengal Chief Minister, the apex court said that no arrest can be made to Sheikh Supian for the next two weeks.
Notably, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s election agent Sheikh Supian was named in FIRs relating to the Nandigram violence in 2007-2009. Incidentally, even though the FIRs were withdrawn by the ruling Trinamool Congress government in 2020, they have been revived after a recent order in this regard by Calcutta High Court.