London postgraduate Iqra Hasan continues family legacy by winning Kairana seat

From Western Uttar Pradesh to Purvanchal, the BJP suffered losses in the Lok Sabha polls, securing only 33 compared to the 62 seats it got in the 2019 polls.

In Western Uttar Pradesh's Kairana Lok Sabha seat, Samajwadi Party's debutante candidate Iqra Hasan defeated BJP's Pradeep Chaudhary by a margin of over 69,000 votes.

Hasan got 5,28,013 (48.9 per cent) votes compared to her nearest rival, Chaudhary, who polled 4,58,897 (42.5 per cent) votes, according to Election Commission data.

An alumnus of the London School of Oriental and African Studies, Iqra Hasan took a plunge into politics after her mother, Tabassum Hasan, and brother Nahid Hasan, a three-time MLA, were booked by the Uttar Pradesh Police.

When Nahid fought the 2022 UP Assembly polls from jail, Iqra was the one managing his campaign in the towns and villages.

In these Lok Sabha polls, she received votes from all segments of society as people admired her for her simplicity.

Iqra Hasan has been active in the politics of the Kairana region for the last nine years. She is the daughter of former MP Tabassum Hasan and Nahid Hasan is her elder brother.

Granddaughter of former MP Chaudhary Akhtar Hasan and daughter of former MPs Munawwar Hasan and Tabassum, she hit the media headlines in 2019 when she took part in the anti-CAA protest in London.

In 2022, when the then MLA Nahid Hasan was in jail before the 2022 Assembly elections after surrendering in court in a gangster case, Iqra Hasan looked after his political work.

In politics, Akhtar Hasan, the head of the Hasan family, contested and won the election of councillor in the municipal elections. After that, he became chairman and then MP from the Kairana Lok Sabha seat. He also introduced his son Munawwar Hasan into politics, who left his mark as a big leader of Western UP.

After his death, his wife, Tabassum Begum, entered politics and was a two-time MP from the Kairana Lok Sabha seat. Tabassum's son, Nahid Hasan, is currently the MLA from Kairana Assembly.

Now Iqra Hasan is the second woman from the family who has become a lawmaker after her mother. Earlier in 2016, she had lost the election of Zila Panchayat by five thousand votes.

"Dozens of false cases were filed against my brother and my mother by the ruling party. I entered politics while my brother was in jail by campaigning in the assembly elections and winning the love of the people. I made my brother win and hoisted my flag by defeating the BJP party on the Lok Sabha seat. Going from Uttar Pradesh to London to study, my mother's biggest support in this and father's blessings and now will work for the rights of our people" she said while speaking to India Today TV.