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Jayant Chaudhary(left) with Begum Tabassum Hasan (center) and RLD chief Ajit Singh. (Express photo by Praveen Jain)
Fresh from her victory in Kairana bypolls on a Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) ticket, Begum Tabassum Hasan met with the party chief Ajit Singh and his son Jayant Chaudhary in Delhi on Saturday. The win in Kairana bypolls is significant because for the first time there was a united Opposition in Uttar Pradesh with the Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) all coming together and backing the RLD candidate.
For the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the loss is embarrassing as it comes close on the heels of the defeat in Gorakhpur and Phulpur in March which were considered BJPs bastions. Tabassum Hasan beat BJP nominee Mriganka Singh with a margin of 44,618 votes on Thursday.
Tabassum had credited her win as a ‘victory of truth against lies.’ She said: “This is the result because BJP harassed the public — through inflation and its lies. The BJP’s victory chariot will be buried in Kairana in the 2019 elections too.”
She spoke about the apathy displayed towards the sugarcane farmers by the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in the state. Tabassum said, “I got votes on issues like delay in payment to sugarcane farmers and corruption in the administration system.”
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Begum Tabassum Hasan with RLD chief Ajit Singh. (Express photo by Praveen Jain)
She accused the ruling government of spreading riots in the state. “The BJP triggered riots and then raised the issue again and again for political gain. But these issues had no impact on the elections. Jinnah was also not an issue… the BJP tried to make that an issue. The real issues were related to farmers and sugarcane.” Attributing the success to the people of Kairana she said ‘the message is very clear — the public will remove the “jumlebaaj” government in 2019. They don’t want a government which lies.’
Also Read | Kairana, Noorpur bypoll losses: Two BJP MLAs blame ‘corruption, inefficient ministers’
Begum Tabassum Hasan, wife of former Member of Parliament Munawwar Hasan, is a familiar face in Uttar Pradesh politics.
She was first elected to Lok Sabha in 2009 on a BSP ticket. She was a member of Committee on Health and Family Welfare and a Standing Committee on Social Empowerment and Justice. She is also a member of UP Central Sunni Waqf board. With the victory, Tabassum has become the only Muslim MP from Uttar Pradesh since 2014.
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