Saiyada Khatoon is an MLA from Domariaganj. According to reports, she has  stated that she had been invited by the villagers of her constituency to participate in the programme on “Maha Chandi Yagya” on Sunday, and after a Ram Katha ceremony, had decided to visit the temple.

However, it became a contentious issue the next day of even when the chairman of the local panchayat, Dharmaraj Verma, along with other members of various Hindu organisations, performed purification rituals which included sprinkling Gangajal, reciting the Hanuman Chalisa in the temple.

Badhani Chafa’s Nagar Panchayat Chairperson Verma has defended these actions by asserting that the sanctity of the Samya Mata temple had been “compromised” by Khatoon’s visit. He alleged, “Samya Mata Mandir is a centre of faith for devotees. People throng the temple with dedication that was disrespected by the local MLA’s visit. She is non-vegetarian, and her visit affected the sanctity of the place.”

Khatoon has stated, that Verma is associated with the BJP and the Hindu Yuva Vahini.

Domariaganj Circle Officer Sujit Kumar Rai has informed the media that a police team was patrolling the area to prevent any potential flare ups. However, as of now, no formal complaint has been lodged regarding the incident, Rai has affirmed, “We will take appropriate action if a complaint is filed in this regard.”

Rai also confirmed that Khatoon had been invited at the behest of the local villagers. An organising committee for the Ram Katha had been formed by local villagers. The pujari of the temple, Sri Krishna Dutt Shukla has asserted that the SP MLA was invited for the event, she had spoken a few words of about peace and harmony and then left.  Shukla and a pujari named Prasad were part of a committee which had given the invitation to the Samajwadi Party MLA.

The superintendent of Police for Siddharthnagar, Abhishek Kumar Agarwal, stated, “We are inquiring into the incident and keeping a close eye on the development.”

Meanwhile, Saiyada Khatoon has stated that she will not refrain from visiting religious sites of all religion due to these acts.

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The post Gangajal sprinkled in temple after visit by Muslim MLA from SP appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Zahida Khan, Congress MLA from Kaman

Given the popularity that Zahida enjoys in the area, it was but obvious that she would be winning with a huge margin. And she did, defeat her BJP opponent by a huge margin of 39621 votes. Interestingly, Zahida, popularly dubbed as the daughter of Mewat, has secured the maximum number of votes – 110789, which way higher than the total votes that what seasoned politicians like Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot have got.

On being asked about this feat, she laughed and said, “Yes, so do I hear that I have managed to get the highest number of votes in the entire Rajasthan.”

A law graduate from Delhi University believes that education is the key for the progress of women from her community. Meo-Muslim is considered to be one of the most backward communities.

Speaking to eNewsroom, she said, “We have always believed that education can bring about a big change in the community. Hence, my focus, like my earlier stint will be on the promotion of women education.” On being asked about what kind of work she and her daughter, Shahnaz Khan, who is also the sarpanch of their village do for the welfare of women, she reiterated, “We have always maintained that educating women is the only way to empower them. Through education only, they will be able to exercise their right. Hence, we will be focusing on education of the girl child.”

She then added, “Water remains to be a major issue in this part of the state. We still don’t have access to soft water. Around 200 villages in this area still have to survive on hard water. Given our proximity to river Chambal, I will we focusing on the renewal of the Chambal Pariyojna or the Chambal Project, so that the water of the river reaches to the villages.”

Zahida, maintained that despite the fact that she is no newcomer to politics, she has had to work hard to register this huge a win. “We have had to work a lot at the ground level, to make an impact in the minds of the voters. Anti-incumbency wave was there, but we had to work a lot to register this huge a win. Needless to say, we got a lot of support from the common man.”

On being asked, what she would be doing for the Meo community, which has been specially targeted by the cow vigilantes in the past five years, she said, “To be honest, we were never this polarized as society, as we have been in the past few years. And that primarily was the way that the BJP government perhaps wanted it to be. People have voted against the politics of hate, you can see the performance of BJP leaders in the Mewat region.”

First published on https://enewsroom.in/
 

The post Meet the Meo-Muslim woman, who bags the maximum votes by any candidate in Rajasthan elections appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The post After 33 Years, Madhya Pradesh Assembly has 2 Muslim MLAs appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Rajasthan elections are out and the Congress is all set to form a government in the state along with also doing the same in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The ousting of the BJP from Rajasthan has also resulted in a larger number of Muslim candidates being elected to the Rajasthan assembly, even though interestingly this is the first time that no Muslim won from the BJP since 1998.  Compared with 2013 elections when the Rajasthan assembly had only two Muslim MLAs, this election resulted in seven Muslims from Congress and one Muslim from BSP winning. The Congress had given tickets to 15 Muslims in these elections.

Rafeek Khan, Adarshnagar Constituency(Photo: Social Media)

Rafeek Khan of Congress won from Adarsh Nagar seat with a margin of 12,553 over BJP’s Ashok Pamami, who was the current MLA of the region. In Kishan pole, Amin Kagzi won by a narrow margin of  a little less than 1,500 votes. The closest fight among the eight Muslim candidates was for Saleh Mohammed from Pokhran, who beat Pratap Pani from the BJP by a margin of just 929 votes. The same could not be said about Zahida Khan, however. The only Muslim female candidate who won, Khan received over 1 lakh votes. She defeated her closest candidate by a margin of over 39,000 votes. Along with Khan, another strong victory for Muslim candidates came from Danish Abrar, who is also the party’s spokesperson for the state. Abrar beat popular BJP leader Ashok Meena by a margin of over 25,000 votes. The other Muslim candidates who won on a Congress seat were Hakam Ali from Fatehpur and Amin Khan from Shau constituency.

Hakim Ali Khan (Photo: Social Media)

Interestingly, the only non-Congress Muslim candidate who won from Rajasthan came not from the BJP but the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Ali won by a margin of over 25,000 against Nempal Singh of the Samajwadi Party with the Congress and the BJP relegated to third and fourth respectively.

WajibAli Naagar constituency ( Photo: Social Media)

The only BJP candidate who won in 2013 elections, Mohammed Younus, was essentially turned into a sacrificial lamb for these elections. Younus, who was the number 2 to Vasundhara Raje, was made to change his constituency on the last day and to make matters worse, he was made to contest against Sachin Pilot in Tonk. No surprises, then, that Younus lost by over 56,000 votes to Pilot who polled over 1 lakh votes.

Amin Khan who won for the 5th time (Photo: Social Media)

These elections across five states have resulted in a total of 19 Muslim candidates winning across Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,  Telangana and Chattisgarh. While Rajasthan and Telangana saw eight Muslim candidates each, two Muslim candidates won from Madhya Pradesh while one Muslim candidate also won from Chattisgarh. No Muslim candidate contested from Mizoram.

Sohail Mohammed with his father Ghazi Fakeer from Pohkhran ( Photo: Social Meida)

Courtesy: Two Circles

The post Eight Muslims MLAs from Rajasthan this time, up from just two in 2013 appeared first on SabrangIndia.