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UP polls: Bareilly cleric’s daughter-in-law, a triple talaq victim, joins BJP
Uttar Pradesh assembly elections 2022: The cleric’s daughter-in-law Nida Khan will now campaign for the BJP. In the meantime, Akhilesh Yadav’s sister-in-law Aparna Yadav keeps up suspense on her contesting UP polls.
After praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for scrapping triple talaq (instant divorce), Nida Khan, the daughter-in- law of Islamic cleric Tauqeer Raza Khan from Bareilly’s famous Dargah Ala Hazrat, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Lucknow on Sunday. Nida Khan is also a triple talaq victim.
On the same day, Aparna Yadav, sister-in-law of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, kept up the suspense on her contesting the UP assembly polls on the BJP ticket.
Nida’s father-in-law Tauqeer Raza Khan also heads the Bareilly-based Ittehad-e-Millat Council, a political outfit that he founded in 2001. He has recently extended support to the Congress.
Nida Khan arrived at the BJP office wearing a ‘burqa’ (veil). She would now campaign for the party, especially among Muslim women, who have benefitted due to the decision to scrap triple talaq, party leaders said. BJP chief JP Nadda had on Saturday said scrapping the instant divorce practice of triple talaq had helped Muslim women.
On her part, Nida Khan said more Muslim women would be drawn to the BJP due to PM Modi’s policies.
“There are many Muslim women like me who have a lot to thank the BJP for,” she said, while targeting famous poet Munawwar Rana who has been a fierce critic of the BJP.
She also targeted Tauqeer Raza Khan stating that the cleric had promised to support the Congress’s “ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon (I am a woman and can accept a challenge)” campaign.
“Tauqeer miyan has promised support for the ladki hoon campaign but what can one expect from a man who could not ensure justice to a woman from his own family,” she said.
Soon after Nida Khan exited, Aparna Yadav who had joined the party 11 days ago in Delhi, met journalists and spoke of how real “badlav (change)” happened in UP in 2017 when BJP came to power.
She also pitched the BJP as a party that cares for the safety and security of women.
“Maximum women empowerment schemes have been given and implemented by the BJP government under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Yogi Adityanath,” she said.
She was asked if she could contest UP polls and if she could be pitted against her brother-in-law from Karhal, the Samajwadi Party bastion from where Akhilesh is contesting.
“Party main bahut sujbhuj rakhne wale log hain … aur ye baat aapke mann main kyun aa rahi hai mujhe nahi pata, par hamari party main ye sangathit roop se decide hota hai ki kaun chunav ladega ya nahin. Abhi jis bhoomika mein hoon, aapke saamne hoon (There are many wise people in the party. I don’t know why you are thinking so, but my party takes a collective decision on who will contest),” she said.
Aparna Yadav also said, “In five years’ time, not one riot took place under BJP. There wasn’t one scam, more than 47000 land grabbers and criminals were arrested and sent to jail, property worth over ₹2000 crore was freed, people in UP got jobs without any push and 39 medical colleges have come up, too.”.
“I also want to ask the Congress leaders if the ‘ladki hoon’ campaign pitch was intended only for UP. That’s because the woman Congress leader in Punjab, too, is now saying that though 12 women had asked for tickets, none got one there. In Uttarakhand, Congress’ women wing chief was humiliated. Actually the problem is Priyanka Gandhi ji only engages in politics of slogan,” she added.
The Karhal assembly segment of Mainpuri, from where Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav is the Lok Sabha MP, is an SP bastion. Barring a stray loss in 2002, the SP has mostly won from Karhal. The BJP has declared 295 candidates, including 37 women, so far. It is yet to declare a candidate against Akhilesh Yadav.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has declared Kuldeep Narayan, a Dalit, as its candidate against the SP chief who is expected to file his nomination on Monday.
Recently, the SP chief had indicated that he had denied the ticket to Aparna and wished her well. Aparna had contested the 2017 UP polls from Lucknow Cantt seat on a Samajwadi Party ticket and lost to BJP’s Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who is now a Lok Sabha MP from Allahabad (Prayagraj).
Several leaders from other parties and organisations joined the BJP on Sunday.
They include former UP minister in the Samajwadi Party government Shivcharan Prajapati (Hamirpur), former BSP general secretary Gangaram Ambedkar, who was OSD to the then chief minister Mayawati, Pal, Baghel and Dhangar Mahasabha national chief Rakesh Pal (Jhansi), former BSP candidate Pradeep Nishad (Gorakhpur) and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party leaders Omvir Singh Chauhan and Thakur Ranvir Singh (Bulandshahr).
The others who joined include former SP functionaries Rajiv Kumar Gupta, Vishwas Gupta (Farrukhabad), Jitendra Gupta (Kannauj), Congress leaders Subhash Saxena (Lucknow), Shanti Devi (Deoria), national chief of Kushwaha, Maurya, Shakya, Saini Kalyan Sanstha Girish Chandra Kushwaha (Hardoi), national chief of Buddhist Association Sushil Bauddha (Saharanpur), state chief of Guru Ravidas Samiti Vivek Kumar Babra (Saharanpur) and chief of Sonkar Mahasabha Govardhan Sonkar (Basti).
Founder of Pitambara Dham Trust in Muzaffarnagar Ayodhya Prasad Mishra, state general secretary of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party Anil Kumar Singh Raghuvanshi (Varanasi), state chief of Satya Bahumat Party Poonam Chandra and vice president Chandan Dixit also joined the BJP. Bharatiya Atal Dal Seva Sangthan also announced support to the BJP.
