Samajwadi Party’s MP-elect from Sambhal, Shafiqur Rahman Barq, sparked off a controversy by saying that he would never utter Vande Mataram.
Barq defeated Bharatiya Janata Party’s Parmeshwar Lal Saini with a margin of about two lakh votes in the just-concluded elections.
In 2013 too, Barq, then a BSP MP, had generated heat by walking out of Lok Sabha while Vande Mataram was being played in the House. His conduct drew flak from all quarters.
After his recent victory, when asked whether he would say Vande Mataram at the time of oath-taking, Barq reiterated his stand of not singing the national song.
The SP MP-elect said that people’s mandate was in favour of alliance in Moradabad division and the BJP had been wiped out from there. He added that cognisant people of western UP had accepted the alliance which was not only a precedent for the state but for the whole country.
Barq said that SP would play the role of a constructive opposition in the Lok Sabha and he would raise the issue of poor Railway facilities and development in Sambhal and Uttar Pradesh.
