Meerut/Lucknow: Tabassum Hasan of Rashtriya Lok Dal has become the first Muslim candidate to enter the Lok Sabha from Uttar Pradesh since 2014. Despite Muslims accounting for 19% of the state’s total population, UP had created history by not electing a single candidate from the community in the 16th Lok Sabha in 2014. Riding on the popularity of its PM candidate Narendra Modi, the BJP-Apna Dal combine had won 73 of 80 seats but they had not fielded a single Muslim. The party had cited ‘winnability’ as the reason behind choosing candidates.
BJP, however, argued that the defeat was due to a consolidation of anti-BJP votes. “Vikas ke upar fatwa bhari pad gaya (Fatwa won over development),” said UP BJP vicepresident JPS Rathore.
Hasan defeated her nearest rival Mriganka Singh of BJP by 44,618 votes in Kairana. Hasan had won the seat in the 2009 LS polls with BSP by besting BJP’s Hukum Singh.
This election, experts said Hasan not only received support of Muslims and Dalits but also from a section of Jats and Gujjars, RLD’s core vote bank, which had drifted towards BJP in 2014. The development is being seen as a “ray of hope” by many Muslims, among them noted historian Prof S Irfan Habib, who wish the trend must continue and maintain that democracy should be “inclusive”.
On her resounding victory, Hasan said, “Grand alliance has shown the way how democracy works. Everyone, irrespective of religion and caste, is a citizen of this country. We are unified and will contribute to BJP’s defeat in 2019.”
BJP, however, argued that the defeat was due to a consolidation of anti-BJP votes. “Vikas ke upar fatwa bhari pad gaya (Fatwa won over development),” said UP BJP vicepresident JPS Rathore.