Bihar Elections: I am being targeted because of my religion: Congress’ candidate Maskoor Usmani

Maskoor Ahmad Usmani, the Congress candidate from Jale constituency in Bihar, has the unusual task of fighting an election over a controversy that has been nagging him from his days as a student leader.

Usmani was president of the Aligarh Muslim University Students’ Union in May 2018 when a local BJP MP demanded removal of Muhammad Ali Jinnah's portrait from the on-campus union office, popularly known as Union Hall.

The issue has resurfaced in the run up to Bihar assembly elections after BJP leaders attacked the Congress party for choosing “Jinnah sympathiser” Usmani as its candidate from the seat in Darbhanga district.

Usmani said he is being deliberately and unnecessarily targeted by the BJP because of his religion, adding that he has no faith in the ideology of the founder of Pakistan.

“Even BJP leaders know I did not put up the portrait in the Union Hall,” Usmani, son of a social worker from Garoul village near Jale assembly seat, told MoneyControl.The university administration and Usmani-led student’s union had in 2018 defended the photo, saying Jinnah was the founder member of the University Court and granted life membership of its students’ union.

“All they (BJP) want is to polarise the elections as they have nothing about their performance in the government to showcase. And they could not find the better person than me, a Muslim who is raising a voice,” said the 25-year-old dental surgeon who says he is the youngest candidate in the Bihar elections beginning October 28.

Jinnah’s portrait was kept in the Union Hall in 1938 after he was given the lifetime membership. The portrait hangs in the hall along with other life-time members, including Mahatma Gandhi.

“AMU has been there since before independence. Its alumni have become politicians, both in India and Pakistan. I said then and am saying now, no Indian Muslim would ever have faith in Jinnah. We did not defend Jinnah. The portraits in the Union Hall depict history not ideology,” he said.

Bihar is going to polls in three phases to elect a new 243-member assembly. Leading the NDA charge in the state, Nitish Kumar’s JD (U) along with the BJP is aiming to retain power. The ruling coalition is being challenged by the Grand Alliance of the Tejashwi Yadav-led RJD, the Congress, and other smaller parties.

In Jale, which has 20-25 per cent Muslim population, Usmani is contesting against the BJP's Jibesh Kumar who won the seat in 2015. In seventeen elections held since 1951, the seat has seen six Muslims winners, the last being CPI’s Abdul Salam in 1995. The Congress’ Vijay Kumar Mishra won the seat in 1990. Mishra won the seat again in 2000 and 2010, but on a BJP ticket.

Usmani, however, insists he doesn’t want to be a Muslim face. “But my campaign is purely on development. More than 35 percent people are illiterate. I am sure people will choose a young candidate who wants to take kids to school and improve health services,” he said.

Bihar has 16 per cent Muslim population making it a sizeable vote bank. In this elections, the Congress has fielded Muslim candidates on 12 out of the 70 seats it is contesting. The RJD has fielded Muslim candidates on 17 out of the  144 seats it is contesting. Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) has fielded 10 Muslim candidates out of the 115 seats it is contesting, while the BJP hasn’t picked any Muslim candidate.

The Congress party has backed Usmani terming the BJP’s charge a “blatant lie”, though there were rumours that the party was reconsidering the decision.

“The Mahagatbandhan’s (Grand Alliance's) candidate from the Jale constituency has nothing to do with Jinnah’s ideology. This is a blatant lie,” Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters in Patna.

Usmani says he is relying on crowd funding campaign for the election in Jale to be held in the third and the last phase on November 7. Of the required Rs 27,00,000, Usmani has been able to raise Rs 1,74,030, so far.

He plunged into electoral politics after completing Bachelors in Dental Sciences from AMU earlier this year. He did his schooling from Darbhanga town. After opposing the demand of removing Jinnah's portrait from the Union Hall, Usmani shot to prominence again during last year’s anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests.

He was booked for sedition for allegedly raising anti-national slogans during an incident on the campus. The charges were dropped after the police found that he was in Delhi at the time of the incident.

But why the Congress? Usmani says he chose the Congress because it was the party associated with the freedom movement. “Because it is a party of Jawaharlal Nehru. The BJP only speaks of development. But the country has seen development during Congress governments. Who built these AIIMS and IITs,” he said.

Usmani, who has written to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar saying he (Kumar) would be responsible of any attack on me during the campaign, says that issues like Pakistan, Jinnah, etc are raised during elections to polarise votes. Last week, Union minister of state for Home Nityanand Rai, who comes from Bihar, said the state would become “a shelter for terrorists” if the RJD was voted to power. In 2015 polls, the then BJP president Amit Shah had said that if the saffron party lost in the state polls, then “crackers would be burst in Pakistan”.

The fresh row was raised by the BJP’s Begusarai MP and Union minister of state Giriraj Singh on October  16 when he accused the Congress of fielding a “sympathiser” of Mohammad Ali Jinnah from the Jale seat.