The BJP has raised objections to the visit of Samajwadi Party MPs to the Parliament Street Mosque on Tuesday, alleging that they were treating the Islamic shrine as their party office.

Jamal Siddiqui, president of the BJP Minority Morcha, said: “We are going to file an FIR against (Samajwadi chief) Akhilesh Yadav and SP MPs for misusing a religious place for their political meeting. What was more surprising was that (Akhilesh’s wife and MP) Dimple Yadav was also there without covering herself completely. It is an insult
to Islam.”

“We’ll also try to hold a meeting at the mosque on Friday or organise a dharna there if the imam of the shrine creates obstacles for us,” he said.

Mohibbullah Nadvi, who was elected SP MP from Rampur in 2024, has been the imam of the Parliament Street Mosque for the last 20 years.

“I had invited Akhilesh and other MPs to see the mosque because it was raining outside. Many MPs come here for Friday prayers,” said Nadvi.

Brajesh Pathak, deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, said: “Akhilesh is not a samajwadi (socialist), he is a namazwadi. He plays games for minority votes.”

Some clerics associated with the BJP have also raised objections to the visit of the SP MPs and said that Nadvi should have held the meeting in his private room instead of the central hall of the mosque, where namaz is offered.

Dharmendra Yadav, Badaun MP and cousin of Akhilesh, had posted a photograph of their visit to the mosque on social media on Tuesday. Besides Dharmendra, Akhilesh and Nadvi, Kannauj MP Dimple and Sambhal MP Zia-ul-Rahman Barq were in the photograph. “The only weapon that the BJP uses is religion,” Akhilesh
told reporters.

“I am with a religion that connects people. The problem with the BJP is that it doesn’t want people to be associated with each other. They want to keep people away from each other. But we believe in every religion.”

Imran Masood, the Congress MP of Saharanpur, said: “I have come to know that Akhilesh and some of his MPs had gone inside the mosque when it was raining. BJP leaders should be ashamed of themselves for making it an issue. They are insulting India’s culture and tradition freely. They are also trying to dishonour a woman.

“The clerics who are raising objections over this visit should also introspect and remind themselves how the BJP has been insulting a particular religion every day,”
Masood said.

Dimple said: “We were there to discuss some social causes and not to hold a political meeting. The BJP doesn’t want a debate in Parliament over the issues of national security and is therefore diverting people’s attention from it.”