I'm Not Afraid of George Galloway and I Won't Be Put Off by His Smear Tactics ; I'm Not Afraid of George at the Next Election Rushanara Ali Will Stand Against Respect in Bethnal Green and Bow. Here She Talks About Being the First Female Bengali to Be Selected by Any Major Party to Contest a Winnable Seat

Evening Standard - London › December 11, 2007

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Summary

AS SOON as Rushanara Ali was selected as the Labour candidate for Bethnal Green and Bow, the incumbent Respect MP, George Galloway, welcomed her to the fray in his trademark inimitable way. "Rushanara Ali is nothing more than a Bengali establishment stooge," he said.

"Respect's next candidate for the seat is certain to be a Bengali, a real Bengali." He added that Ali, who served as Oona King's parliamentary assistant in the Nineties, was "just Oona King mark II", and that at the next general election, he'd be stepping aside to stand in neighbouring Poplar and Limehouse, and to allow "real Bengali" Abjol Miah, a Respect Tower Hamlets councillor, to oppose Ali.

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Extract

I'm Not Afraid of George Galloway and I Won't Be Put Off by His Smear Tactics ; I'm Not Afraid of George at the Next Election Rushanara Ali Will Stand Against Respect in Bethnal Green and Bow. Here She Talks About Being the First Female Bengali to Be Selected by Any Major Party to Contest a Winnable Seat

But if Ali is bothered by what some are calling a thinly veiled sexist attack on her ability as a thoroughly modern Muslim woman to prevail in a traditional male-dominated community, she's not showing it.

"Who is Galloway to say who is a real Bengali?" she says, rolling her eyes at what she regards as a typical belowthe-belt statement from the man who demolished King in the "battle of Bethnal Green", the dirtiest campaign of the 2005 ...

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