Tag Archives: Fatima Rasool Siddique – Lone Muslim BJP Candidate – 2018 Polls

After 33 years, the Madhya Pradesh Assembly has two Muslim legislators

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MADHYA PRADESH:

Arif Aqueel and Arif Masood

India’s first ‘Happiness Minister’ among 13 BJP Ministers who lost in the state elections.

Bhopal :

After 33 years, the Madhya Pradesh Assembly has two Muslim legislators — Arif Aqueel and Arif Masood. Since 1998, Aqueel was the lone Muslim MLA in the 230-member legislative Assembly, winning from Bhopal North. In the recently held state polls, he has been joined by Masood, who represents Bhopal Madhya. Both are Congress candidates.

In the 2018 Assembly elections, Aqueel defeated BJP’s Fatima Rasool with a margin of 35,000 votes, while Masood won from Bhopal Madhya constituency by defeating BJP’s Surendranath Singh with a margin of 15,000 votes.  

There were a total of four Muslim candidates in the fray from the BJP and the Congress. Two women and two men. Congress had given ticket to three Muslim leaders including a women Masarrat Shahid from Sironj seat who failed to win, while BJP only gave a ticket to only one. The Muslim population in the state is estimated at 8-9% of the total population.

Happiness Minister ‘Unhappy’

Tuesday turned out to be unhappy for Madhya Pradesh’s Minister for Happiness, Lal Singh Arya, who was one of the 13 BJP Ministers who lost the Assembly elections.

Arya was the first Minister of Madhya Pradesh’s Happiness Ministry, and also the country’s first, modelled on the national happiness index used by Bhutan.

The Assembly elections result were declared on December 11, and ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured 109 seats out of 230 seats, while Congress secured 114, Samajwadi Party 1, Bahujan Samaj Party 2 and four independents.

With the support of other parties and independent MLAs, Congress staked claim to form the government before the Governor Anandiben Patel on Wednesday afternoon.

In a neck-and-neck fight between Congress and BJP, 13 out of 20 sitting ministers of BJP failed to retain their seats. Some top ministers who lost are Minister of Happiness Lal Singh Arya, Higher Education Minister Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya, Revenue Minister Umashankar Gupta, Medical Education Minister Sharad Jain, Finance Minister Jayant Malaiya, Health Minister Rustam Singh, School and Technical Education Minister Deepak Joshi,

In addition, Animal Husbandry Minister Antar Singh Arya, Women and Child Development Minister Archana Chitnis, Backward Class and Minority Welfare Minister Lalita Yadav, New and Renewable Energy Minister Narayan Singh Kushwaha and Food, Civil Supply Minister Om Praksh Dhurwey and state minister Balkrishna Patidar also lost their seats.

Most of these minister lost with a margin of 10,000 votes while New and Renewable Energy Minister Narayan Singh Kushwaha and Finance Minister Jayant Malaiya lost with a margin of only 200 to 300 votes.

After losing the Gohad seat, an unhappy Happiness Minister blamed Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan for his defeat. He said, “I should not have lost from the seat where I had given pace to the development but CM’s ‘koi mai ka lal reservation kahatam nahi kar sakta’ ( no one can ever endreservation) remark had played a key role in losing my seat.”

Besides BJP, Congress stalwart and leader of opposition in the Assembly Ajay Singh also lost th party’s traditional seat Churhat with a margin of 6,000 votes.

CM Chouhan registered a comfortable victory from his traditional seat, Budhni, by defeating Congress’s heavyweight leader Arun Yadav. But the margin of victory was narrower this time by 20,000 votes.

Taking full responsibility for the defeat, Chouhan said, “I’m the one who is fully responsible for the defeat because we failed to reach out to the rural voters.”

He further said, “I’m sure the Congress will fulfill what it has promised in its manifesto. Aaj se ham chowkidar ke bhumika nibhayenge (from today, we will play the role of watchman) and BJP will play a constructive role of opposition.”

source: http://www.newsclick.com / NEWSclick / Home / Home / Kashif Kakvi / December 13th, 2018

Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections 2018: For BJP’s lone Muslim candidate, it’s much more than an electoral battle

Community Involvement / Social Issues, Leaders, , , ,

Bhopal, MADHYA PRADESH :

Fatima Rasool Siddique
Fatima Rasool Siddique

Fatima Rasool Siddique is the daughter of Congress leader Rasool Siddique.

Fatima Rasool Siddique is the BJP candidate for the Bhopal (North) Assembly seat, earlier held by her father, Rasool Siddique, who as two-time Minister in the 1980s and 1990s was a true-blue Congress leader and a friend of the late Madhavrao Scindia. She is pitted against Arif Aqueel of the Congress, the man who defeated, and then replaced, her father in that seat, a fact that lends a piquancy to the contest.

As a daughter and politician, she has many scores to settle in this election, and has been attracting attention not just for these reasons but also the fact that she is the only Muslim candidate put up by the BJP in Madhya Pradesh .  For Ms. Siddique, who lost her father when just a child, the Congress became a distant comfort, as the years and her own youth ensured that there could be no passing on of her father’s mantle to her. “The Congress of the past no longer exists in any case. Where are the leaders like Shyama Charan Shukla,” she says.

Even so, her decision to join the BJP and contest on its ticket must be a surprise to those around her? Not really, she replies. “I was approached in the 2013 polls too, but I had some reservations and couldn’t make up my mind on time,” she says. “This time around, there was no hesitation, as I have seen the warm-hearted kindness of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan especially towards the girl child.”

Raising her political stock, Mr. Chouhan accompanied her to the Collectorate as she filed her nomination papers.

The BJP is hardly a natural home for the daughter of a Congress man, that too a Muslim, but Ms. Siddique says no one puts any questions on her choice of party. “Most people walk up to me and say how my father had helped them as Minister with jobs, water pumps, hospital admissions, etc.,” she says. On triple talaq, Ms. Siddique maintains a diplomatic line. “Islam is clear on divorce. It should be the last option and preservation of the family should be the first priority,” she says. With a Congress pedigree in the largely majoritarian BJP, Ms. Siddique will need those diplomatic skills.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Elections> Madhya Pradesh 2018 / by Nistula Hebbar / Bhopal – November 16th, 2018