“If any finger is pointed at a BJP worker, then I assure you, in four hours that finger will not be salamat : Manoj Sinha

GHAZIPUR: Union Minister Manoj Sinha has been caught on camera making a mafia-style threat of “taking care of critics within four hours” while campaigning in Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, where he is the BJP candidate for the Lok Sabha elections. Manoj Sinha is a three-time parliamentarian of the BJP.

“If any finger is pointed at a BJP worker, then I assure you, in four hours that finger will not be salamat (safe),” the 59-year-old is heard saying to slogan-shouting from his audience.

“BJP’s workers are ready to bury corruption and illegal wealth. No one has the temerity to look a BJP worker in the eye. If they do, then rest assured, those eyes will not be safe,” the minister says in Hindi.

He was apparently trying to convey that the BJP would not allow those steeped in corruption and crime to enter his constituency.

Manoj Sinha is the Union Minister of State (independent charge) for Communications and Railways. He describes himself as an “agriculturist and social worker” in his parliament bio.

His main rival is the joint opposition candidate Afzal Ansari of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), who had defeated him in 2004. Afzal Ansari is the brother of Mukhtar Ansari, a jailed politician facing many criminal cases.

Last weekend, Manoj Sinha had said at a public event that India wouldn’t have faced terrorism today had Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel been the first prime minister, instead of Jawaharlal Nehru.

Uttar Pradesh’s 80 parliamentary seats are voting in all seven rounds of the national election which will end on May 19. The results will be announced on May 23.