By Aiswarya Raj
Deputy LoP (Leader of the Opposition) in the outgoing Haryana Assembly, Aftab Ahmed is known to be a close aide of LoP Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Aftab, who was the transport minister in the previous Hooda-led Congress government, is also the former vice-president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC). A two-time MLA from Nuh, Aftab, 58, is again contesting from the seat on the Congress’s ticket in the October 5 state Assembly elections. He is pitted against the BJP’s Sanjay Singh, former minister, and INLD candidate Tahir Hussain. In an interview with The Indian Express, Aftab speaks on a range of issues, including the BJP’s growing presence in the Muslim-dominated Nuh belt in the Mewat region. Excerpts:
The BJP has been fielding Muslim candidates from the three seats of Nuh district — Ferozepur Jhirka, Punhana and Nuh — for the past few Assembly polls, and the party’s vote share has been increasing in the belt even though it has not been able to win any of these seats so far. This time too, the BJP has fielded Muslim nominees in Ferozepur Jhirka and Punhana. In 2019 polls, you could defeat the then BJP’s candidate Zakir Hussain in Nuh by just 4,038 votes. It seems the BJP’s acceptance among Mewat’s Muslims has been on the rise. Your comments?
These leaders had served as MLAs from other parties before they were fielded by the BJP. They already had a following. Also, before the 2019 polls, the people had not experienced the hatred spread by the BJP. Things have drastically changed now. In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the vote share of BJP MP (Rao Inderjit Singh), Union MoS, has declined. Not only minorities, all sections of people have understood the divisive politics the BJP plays for its political gains. This combined with ten years of BJP’s misrule and the way they have treated Haryana, especially Mewat, will see people moving away from the party. Following the Nuh riots, many things have disrupted the lives of people, such as the demolition of the homes of the poor, arrest of innocent people, and slapping of stringent charges like UAPA against them.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
