LUCKNOW: BJP is expected to pick a
Muslim candidate
for the impending bypoll to
Moradabad
's Kundarki assembly seat - a first for the saffron party in any
UP
election since it gave
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
a Lok Sabha ticket in 2019.
A senior BJP functionary said the state party brass was in contact with a prominent Muslim face, hoping to regain its lost foothold in UP with a horses-for-courses approach in the byelections to 10 seats.
"The state leadership will consider all aspects before finalising his name and sending it to the central leadership for approval."
The Kundarki seat was vacated by Zia Ur Rehman, SP's winning candidate in Sambhal Lok Sabha constituency.
BJP's lone Muslim candidate in the Lok Sabha elections was former Calicut University vice-chancellor Abdul Salam, whom it fielded in Kerala's Malappuram. Salam though lost to E T Mohammad Basheer of Indian Union Muslim league.
In the 1998 LS polls, Naqvi won the Rampur seat on a BJP ticket. He lost the seat in 1999 to Congress's Begum Noor Bano. The same year, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, another senior Muslim BJP neta, won Bihar's Kishanganj seat.
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