Burqas for BJP: Tailor says mystery man named Ankur took quotation, but no order

After Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday accused BJP of ordering 10,000 burqas for its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s rally in Bhopal, the tailor in question said a quotation for the burqas had been issued in the name of Ankur.

After Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday accused BJP of ordering 10,000 burqas for its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s rally in Bhopal, the tailor in question said a quotation for the burqas had been issued in the name of Ankur.

“On Monday, somebody came to the shop and took the quotation for 10,000 burqas in the name of Ankur, but did not place an order. We told him it was not possible to prepare so many burqas in one day,” said Salim Khan, owner of Zeenat Tailors.

Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday had accused the BJP of ordering burqas from a tailor in Indore and skull caps from Lucknow to feign support from Muslims for Tuesday’s Bhopal rally to be addressed by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

Singh had showed a copy of the bill from the tailor as proof of the purchase. He added that the bill was footed by a real estate company owned by Dilip Suryavanshi, a close friend of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

“The Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to show that it has the support of the Muslim minority in the country. As proof, I have a bill that shows 10,000 burqas have been bought by the party from Indore,” Singh said on Tuesday at a press conference in Indore.

“Devendra Jain, director of the real estate company Buildcon, had personally come to Indore and paid Rs 42 lakh in advance to Zeenat Tailors, who had given a bill of Rs 44.60 lakh.”

However, the tailor said the quotation was being passed off as a bill while Suryavanshi too denied the allegation.

Suryavanshi said he knew nothing about any director of his company going to Indore and making any such payment.

Digvijaya Singh could not be contacted for comments despite repeated attempts.

Shankar Lalwani, president of Indore city BJP unit, said, “Dinesh Meena, a staff at Zeenat Tailors, told us that the quotation was issued in the name of Ankur on September 23. But the Congress changed the date to August 23 and presented it as a bill instead.”

Chouhan later on Tuesday said the Congress was scared of the BJP and was thus making false allegations. “The statements do not carry any weight and nobody believes them,” he said.

On Tuesday evening, members of the BJP minority cell also lodged a complaint with the inspector general of police against the Congress over the ‘fake bill’.

The 'quotation' bill being showed by the shop staff.