Did BJP's Madhavi Latha fire arrow at mosque? Row erupts over video

A BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Telangana has been heavily criticised after a video of her from an election rally, pretending to draw and fire an arrow near a mosque, surfaced.

Madhavai Latha is the party's candidate from the Hyderabad seat, which has been held by AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi since 2004 and his father, Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, since 1989.

In the purported video, Latha was seen standing on a moving vehicle, dressed in saffron attire at a rally and surrounded by a pool of people. She was seen wearing garlands and pretending to draw an arrow from an imaginary quiver on her back and firing the weapon. The video further shows a mosque in the direction she was firing the arrow in.

Slamming the video, Owaisi called the actiion of Latha at a Ram Navami rally "provocative".

"The people of Hyderabad have seen the BJP's intentions. They will not accept vulgar and provocative actions by the BJP and RSS (the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, seen as the ruling party's ideological mentor)," he said.

"Is this the 'Viksit Bharat' that BJP is talking about?" he further added.

After the heavy criticism, the BJP leader shared a post on X giving a clarification about the video.

"It has come to my notice that a video of mine is being circulated in the media to create negativity. I would like to clarify that this is an incomplete video and if anyone's feelings are hurt due to such a video, I would like to apologise..." she wrote.

She also spoke to news agency PTI, claiming a "conspiracy against us (the BJP)... because we work well with both Hindu and Muslim brothers" and demanded "where did the mosque come from?"

"Yesterday, on the occasion of Ram Navami, I was gesturing shooting an (imaginary) arrow towards the sky. I released that arrow towards a building, that's it. Where did the mosque come from?" she said.