A Shia cleric of the city today slammed the decision by the Lucknow community under the banner of RSS to support Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate of BJP for the next Lok Sabha polls and said it does not reflect the opinion of the entire community.
The cleric Maulana Zaki Hussain Rizvi told PTI here that the Shia community in the country has not taken any such decision to support BJP or Narendra Modi.
The decision taken by the Lucknow Shia community under the banner of RSS has nothing to do with the community as a whole as it does not believe in joining any party or political organization, he said.
Shia's RSS head Bukkal Nawab, who is also a BJP MLC, had said last month that Shia muslims will support Modi as the PM candidate and are also in favour of the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya.
"Shia community will unitedly support the BJP to ensure Modiji becomes PM once again after 2019 elections," he had said adding no other political party except the BJP cared for Shia Muslims, who form about 18 per cent of the Muslim population.
Rizvi said, "This so called support (to Modi) was engineered by a particular leader who is also a BJP leader. His statement that the Shia community of India has decided to support Narendra Modi and BJP in 2019 is absolutely absurd. He does not have the authority to speak on behalf of the entire community.
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