Maharashtra Assembly polls: Back from Glasgow, 28-year-old lawyer contesting in Hadapsar on VBA ticket, advocates for minority rights

He recalled his involvement as a student in the Shaheen Bagh protest against CAA and NRC. “That was the beginning as I started connecting with people on issues and concerns of the Muslim community,” he said.

After completing his post-graduation in Glasgow where he studied law and international human rights, Mulla participated in public gatherings. As a youth leader of the Muslim community he also became the convenor of the Secularist Muslim Front.

“Our main demand to parties like Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was to give adequate representation to Muslims in the political arena. However, no other mainstream political party has been able to give us any assurance on that except for VBA,” Mulla said.

The young candidate is keen on 5 per cent reservation for Muslims in the education sector and has been actively protesting against what he terms as the ‘bulldozer culture’ in Hadapsar area. He claims a similar trend in Hadapsar by demolishing houses in shanties to benefit some builders.

In the Hadapsar Assembly segment, Prashant Jagtap from Maha Vikas Aghadi (Sharad Pawar) is contesting the elections while Mahayuti has fielded sitting legislator Chetan Tupe from the NCP (Ajit Pawar) faction.

Nanded South: VBA’s Farooque Ahmed to contest for 2nd time

Meanwhile, the VBA has fielded Farooque Ahmed, 50, in Nanded South for the second time. Ahmed, a PG diploma holder in Computer Applications, had received 26,713 votes in 2019. Ahmed, who runs a pharmacy, highlights the rising unemployment in the constituency as one of the key issues of the state during the rallies and door-to-door meetings. “There is still anger over a Dalit youth Akshay Bhalerao’s death at Bondhar village in Nanded South,” Ahmed said and claims that there is simmering discontent about the other candidates.

Interestingly, the by-elections to the Lok Sabha seat of Nanded is also being held along with the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election. While Congress has declared Ravindra, son of Vasantrao Chavan as its candidate, the BJP has fielded Dr Santuk Hambarde, the BJP district chief of Nanded. Incidentally, his brother Mohan Hambarde is contesting the Nanded South Assembly seat as a Congress candidate while Shiv Sena under Eknath Shinde has fielded Anand Tidke Patil.