Eshwarappa hurls 'Hijada' slur at Congress MLAs

Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K S Eshwarappa raked up a controversy by saying that the few MLAs who were hesitating to join the BJP were exhibiting their 'Hijadathana', here on Sunday. Hijada is a derogatory slur aimed at members of the transgender community.

Speaking at an event organised by Sri Rama Sene in the city, he said that many MLAs were still dependent on Muslim votes. "What happens if we don't get Muslim votes. Before we formed the government, I met a few Congress MLAs who wanted to join the BJP. But they were afraid of losing elections as 50,000 Muslims would not vote for them," he said, adding that such MLAs were exhibiting their 'Hijadathana'.

Patriotic Muslims, Eshwarappa said, voted for the BJP. "Whoever is pro-Pakistan and is an anti-national Muslim, did not vote for BJP," the minister said.

Eshwarappa has used such rhetoric against the Muslim community in the past. In 2018, he said that civilised Muslims were backing the BJP whereas the 'Muslim murderers' of Hindu activists were voters of the Congress.

Ahead of the Assembly polls in the same year, he said that the BJP won't give the ticket to Muslims in Karnataka "because you don't have faith in the BJP".