Overseas BJP UK group slams 'anti-India' Labour leaflet being distributed in Batley and Spen bypoll

LONDON: Overseas Friends of BJP-UK has written a letter to Labour party chief Sir Keir Starmer calling for the withdrawal of an "anti-India, anti-democratic" leaflet promoting his party candidate in a parliamentary byelection.
The flyer for Labour candidate Kim Leadbeater in the Batley and Spen byelection has a picture of Indian PM Narendra Modi with UK PM Boris Johnson along with the message: "The risk of voting for anyone but Labour is clear". The title of the flyer is "Don't risk a Tory MP who is not on your side". Labour activists have been distributing the leaflet in areas populated with Hindus and Muslims from Gujarat and J&K, as well as from PoK.
Leadbeater is the sister of the constituency's former Labour MP Jo Cox, who was murdered. The byelection, which takes place on Thursday, was triggered after the former MP was elected West Yorkshire mayor. Labour is in a fierce battle to retain the seat it has held since 1997. Besides Tories, hard-left politician George Galloway, leader of Workers Party of Britain, is targeting to get hold of the constituency. He is said to be successfully wooing away disillusioned Muslim voters upset with Starmer's tough stance on anti-Semitism and his neutral position on Palestine.
Kuldeep Shekhawat, president of OFBJP-UK, raised objection to the use of Johnson- Modi's 2019 G7 summit photo as well comment regarding "human rights abuses" in Kashmir in the flyer. "We would like to express our dissent to the misuse of a photo of the PM of India in one of the campaigns by Labour candidate Kim Leadbeater. We kindly request you to verify the facts," he wrote in letter to Starmer.
Conservative MP Bob Blackman said, "The disgraceful literature purports to use Boris Johnson and Narendra Modi to condemn the local campaign. To jeopardise such an important relationship for a mere parliamentary byelection seems outrageous." Labour Friends of India too condemned the leaflet. "It is unfortunate that the Labour party used a picture of the PM of India, the world's largest democracy and one of the UK's closest friends, on its leaflet."