BJP loses prestige battle in Kairana

FIRST MUSLIM MP FROM UP SINCE 2014

NEW DELHI: Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD)’S Tabassum Hasan became the first Muslim candidate to enter Lok Sabha from Uttar Pradesh since 2014.

Kairana was at the centre stage of the communal riots which rocked Western UP in November 2013. In the wake of the riots, the region had witnessed a deep divide between Jats and Muslims and had posed a major challenge for RLD.

The opposition on Thursday wrested Kairana from the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh, where the parliamentary bypoll became a massive battle for pride in an election year leading up to the 2019 national polls. Tabassum Hasan, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate, won against her BJP rival Mriganka Singh.

Hasan, a former lawmaker, was supported by the Congress and Samajwadi Party; she also claimed the support of Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

The by-poll was pitched as another test of opposition unity against the BJP after the Samajwadi Party and BSP pooled their resources to defeat the ruling party in its strongholds Gorakhpur and Phulpur in March. The opposition hopes to evolve a successful template for joining forces to take on the BJP in state elections later this year and the 2019 national polls.

By-polls were held in Kairana because of the death of Mriganka Singh’s father, BJP parliamentarian Hukum Singh, in February. In the Noorpur Assembly seat, which was also left vacant after the death of a BJP legislator in a road accident, the Samajwadi Party has won.

Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said the opposition’s win in Kairana and Noorpur was a win for the farmers, the neglected, the poor and the Dalits. He also thanked all opposition parties for coming together and ensuring the win in the bypolls.

Voting in both Kairana and Noorpur was marred by complaints of snags in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMS) and VVPATS or Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail machines that produce slips to confirm to the voter that his choice has been recorded correctly. Repolling was held at 73 polling stations in Kairana on Wednesday.