'It's a message to tease Hindus': BJP on AIMIM naming Tahir Hussain for Delhi Assembly polls

New Delhi: The BJP on Wednesday alleged that the AIMIM has sent out a message to “tease Hindus” by naming Delhi riots accused Tahir Hussain as its candidate for the upcoming assembly polls here.

Hussain has "officially" joined the party and he will be the party’s candidate from the Mustafabad constituency in the assembly elections due in February, said All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Delhi unit president Shoaib Jamai in a post on X on Tuesday.

Asked for comment, BJP MP and national spokesperson Sambit Patra slammed the AIMIM for fielding Hussain as its candidate for the Delhi Assembly polls and said “it’s a message to tease the Hindus”.

“Let us also send out our message: ‘Ek hain toh safe hain’ (united we are safe). Otherwise, people like Tahir Hussain are trying their best to break the unity and integrity of the country by staying behind bars even after playing with the Constitution,” he told a press conference at the BJP headquarters here.

Patra also targeted the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and sought to know the opinion of its national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on the AIMIM fielding Hussain as its candidate.

Hussain, former AAP councillor, is currently lodged in judicial custody in connection with the 2020 Delhi riots cases. The AAP had expelled him from the party after his name figured in connection with the riots.

He was granted bail by a city court in one of the 2020 Delhi riots cases earlier in May. The court had said that Hussain’s role in the riots was "remote in nature" and he had already spent more than three years in custody.

Earlier this month, the Delhi High Court quashed an FIR against Hussain observing the existence of a similar case against him.