Around 25 families living in a small village in South Tripura were turned away by a mosque for joining Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) two years ago. They are now forced to worship in a temporary mosque.
The village has over 100 families and 83 of them are Muslim.
Moidatila, a small village of farmers now has two mosques. A report in the Indian Express says that the original mosque holds congregations of the non -BJP families and the BJP supporters pray in a makeshift mosque.
Babul Hossain, a resident of the village said that they joined the BJP 16 months ago and soon, people at the mosque told them they could no longer pray there.
"They said since we are supporting a Hindu-vadi party, there is no longer any need to come to the mosque and we could go with the Hindus,” Hossain told the daily.The families have engaged a separate imam and pay to him through collections.
Hossain also said that he doesn't know about the BJP being a Hindutva party and don't believe they have been involved in attacks against Muslims in other parts of the country. He also said that they want to current government to go as they have got nothing from them (Left Front) in 25 years.
Tripura is set to go to polls to elect a 60-member Assembly on February 18 and the results would be declared on March 3. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah on Monday claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will win in the Tripura election 2018 and form a government in the state.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) has a strong foothold in Tripura and is in power for the past 25 years. In the 2013 polls, the CPI(M) managed to bag a majority with 51 seats, while the rest was shared by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Congress party.
