Don't add communal colors to my statements, tweets KS Eshwarappa

Bengaluru: Facing severe criticism for his remarks that BJP will not give ticket to Muslims to contest the elections as they do not believe in the party, senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister K S Eshwarappa tweeted that it is the media who is adding communal colors to his statement.

Eshwarappa on Tuesday tweeted ” Dear Media, Please don’t add communal colors to my statements. Correction: I am not the hater of any community including Muslims. My statement was about a question asked about will “Iqbal Ansari” get ticket from BJP? Please don’t try to twist my statement about an individual.”

“Whenever a new person joins he is not given any post, he has to work hard and earn the post, similarly I had mentioned about Iqbal Ansari,” Eshwarappa tweeted, reacting to a media report on his statement.

Eshwarappa on Monday, April 1 had said that his party will not give tickets to Muslims to contest the elections as they do not believe in the party.

“We will not give…We will not give ticket to Muslims in Karnataka. Why? (because) you do not believe in us. If you believe and vote us, if you understand us, we will see,” Eshwarappa said.

He also alleged that the Congress party has only used Muslims as a “vote bank.”

However, the senior leader from the Kuruba community Tuesday clarified that he was not a hater of any community including Muslims and his statement was in response to a specific question about Iqbal Ansari, a political leader from the district, getting ticket from the BJP.