LUCKNOW: BJP MLC Bukkal Nawab, seems to have a penchant for hogging the limelight. After creating a controversy by calling Lord Hanuman a Muslim last year, he is in the headlines yet again for reciting ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ in the memory of his late father here on Saturday.
A Samajwadi Party turncoat, who had joined BJP in July 2017, did the recitation in the temple constructed by his father late Dara Nawab at Kudiyaghat in the old city area of Lucknow 25 years ago.
Bukkal Nawab, accompanied by his supporters of National Shia Society, recited the Hanuman Chalisa along with temple’s head priest Neeraj Awasthi.
“It was a tribute to my late father,” said the BJP MLC after concluding the recitation.
In fact, social media was abuzz by his videos reading the couplets at the temple.
Notably, after relinquishing his link with SP and resigning from the membership of State Council early last year at the time CM Yogi Adityanath and his two deputy CMs were seeking election to the upper house of the state legislature, Bukkal Nawab had straightaway went to Hanuman temple to pay obeisance.
The BJP MLC had justified his claim that Lord Hanuman was a Muslim by presenting a weird reason saying that Muslims had names like Arman, Rehman, Furqan, Zeeshan, Rehan, Salman which rhymed with Hanuman. He also keeps in media glare every now and then by organising ‘bhandaras’ and offering bells at various Hanuman temples from time to time.