Aparupa Poddar


Afrin Ali is an Indian politician and a member of parliament to the 16th Lok Sabha from Arambagh, West Bengal. She won the 2014 Indian general election as an All India Trinamool Congress candidate.

Controversies

The allegations relating to the first controversy, regarding financial corruption, were confirmed to be true on 05-Oct-2017, when she confessed that she had taken a bribe from Narada News boss Mathew Samuel as part of Narada sting operation.
The allegations regarding the second controversy are regarding her religion. Born into a Hindu family and named Aparupa Poddar at birth, she converted to Islam and married a Muslim man. She then stood for election from a parliamentary constituency which is reserved for those belonging to the scheduled castes. The Bharatiya Janata Party duly lodged a complaint with the Election Commission seeking cancellation of her candidature on the plea that she had converted to Islam and hence she did not belong to a scheduled caste. Aparupa Poddar then claimed, that she had changed her name but not her religion.