New Delhi: He may not be the best known name or face of the party nationally or even in Uttar Pradesh but Syed Zafar Islam is the envy of many in the BJP for getting a coveted Rajya Sabha nomination.
Islam is a national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party – one of many – but is being sent to the upper house of parliament from Uttar Pradesh.
On Wednesday, the BJP announced that Islam would be its candidate for the seat, which fell vacant after the demise of Amar Singh. Singh, who was 64, breathed his last at a Singapore hospital on August 1. He was suffering from kidney-related ailments.
Apart from the BJP’s need to add Muslim faces to the treasury benches – out of 363 party MPs in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, only two are Muslim – Syed Islam’s role in wooing Congress leader and former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to the BJP has also apparently weighed in his favour.
Syed Zafar Islam with Jyotiraditya Scindia and Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Photo: Twitter/@syedzafarBJP
According to reports, Islam used his long association with Scindia to good effect in bringing the politician to the BJP fold. A former banker, who held the post of managing director with Deutsche Bank, Islam joined the BJP in April 2014 and was soon after made a national spokesperson. Later on, he was also made a non-official independent director of Air India by the Narendra Modi government in 2017.
His soft-spoken and gentle nature is said to have endeared him to politicians of various hues, including Scindia. And when he fell out with the Congress’s central leadership over differences with then chief minister Kamal Nath, the BJP is learnt to have given Islam the responsibility of winning over Scindia.
In a subtle way, Islam is said to have arranged Scindia’s subsequent meetings with both Prime Minister Modi and home minister Amit Shah. Of course, Scindia was no stranger to the ways of BJP as his own grandmother, Vijaya Raje Scindia, and two aunts – former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia and MP minister Yashodhara Raje – have been with the party.
The BJP had fielded six Muslim candidates in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, none of whom won. In the Rajya Sabha, the party has only two Muslim MPs in Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and M.J. Akbar.
Islam’s victory in the polls, due to be held on September 11, appears almost a certainty since the BJP commands a comfortable majority in the UP state legislature.
On August 21, the Election Commission of India announced it would hold by-elections to the seat. The last day for filing of nominations is September 1, while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is September 4.
Note: The article has been updated to remove a line stating that BJP’s Bishnupur MP Saumitra Khan and Shwait Malik are Muslim.