Samajwadi Party M.P. Shafiqur Rahman Barq on May 22 said that there was no ‘Shivling’ in Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi and the word was spread about it to stoke sentiments for the upcoming 2024 parliamentary elections.
"All these circumstances are being created due to 2024 elections. If you go into the history there was no 'Shivling' and nothing else in the Gyanvapi mosque. All this is wrong," Mr. Barq, an M.P. from Sambhal, told reporters outside the Samajwadi Party office. Mr. Barq was here to meet SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav.
On Ayodhya, Mr. Barq said, "Though a Ram temple is being constructed, I still say that there is a mosque there".
