BJP bids farewell to remaining Muslim MPs - Akbar, Naqvi & Zafar!

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party had three Muslim members in the Rajya Sabha. This time all three have bid farewell and none of them will be making a comeback. Till the last day of filing nominations on Tuesday, BJP declared candidates for 22 seats and no Muslim candidate is named in it. In this way, the BJP will have one hundred members in the Rajya Sabha, in which there will not be a single Muslim member. The BJP already has 303 MPs in the Lok Sabha, out of which there is not a single Muslim. The BJP did not field any Muslim candidate even in the recently held Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

However, senior journalist and former minister MJ Akbar was a Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh. He was caught in the charge of ‘Me Too’. Several women journalists accused him of sexual harassment, after which he had to leave the ministerial post. Then it seemed that again he would not be able to get the membership of Rajya Sabha. Similar was not the case with Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Everyone was assuming that he is a minister at the Center and the Muslim face of BJP in national politics, so he will return to the Upper House. He is a Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand. But this time he too was not given ticket by the party. In his place, the party has given ticket to Aditya Sahu in Jharkhand.

It is being said that Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi will contest the by-election from his traditional Rampur Lok Sabha seat. He has been a one-time MP from this seat. The seat fell vacant after the resignation of Samajwadi Party’s Azam Khan. For the past few days, Azam Khan has been expressing displeasure with his party - Samajwadi Party. It is believed that due to this public outrage, he was released from jail after 27 months. Informed sources say that he can help the BJP candidate. If he does not contest anyone from his family, then automatically BJP will be helped. The BSP has already said that it will not contest the bypolls. So, it is possible that with the help of Azam Khan, NaqviBJP’s first Muslim MP - reaches the Lok Sabha.

The third Muslim MP was Syed Zafar Islam. He became a Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh in the by-election two years ago. There was a lot of discussion in Madhya Pradesh about his role in bringing Jyotiraditya Scindia closer to the BJP and toppling the Congress government. Then it was believed that he would get one more term. He is originally from Jharkhand and is engaged in some political activities there these days, due to which there was talk of him becoming a Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand. But it didn’t happen. In this way, the three Muslim MPs of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha were bid farewell.