Aparupa Poddar (politician)

Afrin Ali née Aparupa Poddar is an Indian politician and a member of parliament to the 16th 17th Lok Sabha from Arambagh (Lok Sabha constituency), West Bengal. She won the 2014 & 2019 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 5 October 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 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 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.