In a first, BJP scouts for Muslim to contest UP’s Kundarki seat in bypoll

LUCKNOW: In a politically significant move, BJP plans to field a Muslim candidate in the assembly bypoll for Kundarki seat in Moradabad. The seat has fallen vacant after the election of incumbent SP MLA Zia Ur Rehman to Lok Sabha from Sambhal seat.
Sources said BJP was contemplating fielding a senior Muslim functionary from its organisation. If finalised, this would be the first time that BJP would field a Muslim in an assembly poll in UP though its has fielded its prominent leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in Lok Sabha polls in the past.
It was in 2009 that Naqvi last contested the Lok Sabha election. Since then, the saffron party has not fielded any Muslim candidate, either in Lok Sabha or in assembly polls.
Sources said Muslims account for around 60% of the electorate in Kundarki, a seat which the party has never won.
A top BJP functionary confirmed to TOI that the organisational command is in contact with a Muslim functionary of the party. "The state leadership would consider all aspects before finalising his name and sending it to the central leadership for final approval," the BJP neta told TOI.
BJP's lone Muslim candidate in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was Abdul Salam, the former vice-chancellor of Calicut university, from Malappuram seat in Kerala. Salam though lost to ET Mohammad Basheer of the Indian Union Muslim league (IUML).
In UP, the last time BJP backed a Muslim candidate was Haider Ali who was fielded from Suar assembly seat in Rampur on Apna Dal ticket, an ally, during the 2022 state elections. Ali lost to SP's Abdullah Azam by more than 60,000 votes.
In the 1998 Lok Sabha elections, Naqvi had won from Rampur. He lost the seat in 1999 to Congress's Begum Noor Bano. The same year Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, another senior Muslim BJP neta, won from Kishanganj seat in Bihar and was inducted in the then Vajpayee govt. Hussain won from Bhagalpur parliamentary seat in 2006 bypoll and again in 2009. He lost Bhagalpur by 10,000 votes in 2014.
Analysts said BJP is trying to frame a deft strategy to counter the opposition, primarily the SP-Congress combine, in the upcoming bypolls on 10 seats. BJP strategists will also try to blunt the opposition which is buoyed by consolidation of Muslim votes in the Lok Sabha elections.
Besides Kundarki, bypolls are also due on Karhal, Katehari, Milkipur, Khair, Sisamau, Phulpur, Majahwan, Ghaziabad and Meerapur. Of the 10 bypoll-bound seats, BJP had won Khair, Phulpur and Ghaziabad while SP had won five - Katehari, Karhal, Milkipur, Sisamau and Kundarki. Meerapur and Majahwan were won by BJP allies, RLD and NISHAD party, respectively.
Experts said the bypolls have turned into a battle of prestige for both BJP and the SP-Congress combine even as they start gathering pace for the assembly polls in 2027.