‘Believers In One God Will Never Recite Vande Mataram’: Senior RJD Leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui

Stoking up a controversy ahead of upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Darbhanga constituency of Bihar, senior Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former Bihar minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui shared that reciting national song Vande Mataram was against his beliefs.

"Those who believe in one God will never recite Vande Mataram," Siddiqui said, adding, he did not, however, have any problems with the slogan 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'.

Meanwhile, the Congress party which is fighting the polls in Bihar in an alliance with the RJD tried to distance itself from Siddiqui's remarks. "People should desist from making controversial statements," said senior Congress leader Prem Chandra Mishra, reports DNA India.

Siddiqui, a former finance minister of Bihar had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Madhubani, where he lost by around 21,000 votes to BJP rival Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections he is pitted against BJP debutant Gopalji Thakur given Yadav is no longer contesting the election. Yadav was conferred with the revered award of Padma Bhushan in January 2019.