‘Kausar Jahan’s win is the victory of popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Muslim society’.
NEW DELHI: The BJP clinched the post of Delhi Haj committee chairperson after Kausar Jahan of the saffron party won the election. The Chairperson of the Haj committee is elected by the six-member committee, which includes two MLAs, one MP, one councillor, and two nominees.
The members of the committee are AAP MLAs Abdul Rahman and Haji Yunus, BJP MP Gautam Gambhir, Congress councillor Naziya Danish, Kausar Jahan, and Mohammad Saad who is an Islamic scholar. The committee and its chairperson have a three-year tenure. The last chairperson of the committee was AAP’s Mukhtar Ahmed.
The BJP termed this victory as an acceptance of PM Modi’s popularity in the Muslim community. “The victory of BJP candidate Kausar Jahan over the chairperson of the Delhi Haj Committee is the victory of popularity and acceptance of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Muslim society. BJP is working to take all sections of society forward,” said BJP Delhi working President Virender Sachdeva.
Last month, the Haj committee issue had become a cause of contention between the L-G and the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government. The addition of a Congress councillor member to the Haj committee brought a sharp reaction from AAP. Later, AAP accused the Congress and BJP of being hand-in-gloves, before the mayoral election.
According to AAP leaders, the “dishonesty” of L-G V.K. Saxena and the absence of the Congress counsellor helped Kausar win the election. Kausar Jahan received three of five votes, one member abstained from voting and two AAP members walked out.
“Many people are saying that AAP has suffered a setback in Haj Committee elections because, for the first time, a BJP worker has been chosen as chairperson. This is being portrayed as a big win for BJP. Before this, most did not even know that the chairperson of the committee was an elected person. The chairperson is elected from six members of the committee, who are traditionally nominated by the elected government. When the government selects electors, obviously one person is elevated from among them, usually by consensus. But this time, the L-G played a dishonest trick in committee formation. The names sent by the elected government were changed by him. When you pick the committee, it is obvious that the chairperson will be your person,” said AAP national spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj.
The Sunday Guardian reached out to the newly elected chairperson to get her comments on the issue, “First of all, I want to thank God and the top leadership of the party because without their support, this would have been not possible,” said Kausar Jahan. “All my endeavour would be to solve the problems of every haji,” added Jahan. She also thanked PM Modi and said “This is a forward step towards PM Modi’s dream of women’s empowerment.”
Asked about the allegations made by AAP, she said: “I want to request my brothers, please don’t do politics on it. This is holy work.” Her win in this election made her the second woman to be elected as chairperson; before her, Taj Babar of Congress was the first woman to hold this position in the 1980s and 1990s.
Kausar Jahan is a member of the BJP Minority Morcha. She joined the saffron party four years ago, but according to her; she is unofficially working for the party for the last 15 years. This victory has also boosted the position of the Delhi BJP working President Virender Sachdeva, according to sources inside Delhi BJP.