Syed Shahnawaz Hussain rewarded for J&K work, gets MLC ticket in Bihar

NEW DELHI:  Former Union minister and BJP’s national spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain was named by the party on Saturday its MLC candidate from Bihar. Hussain appears to have finally been able to find favours with the BJP leadership after he campaigned in DDC elections in the Kashmir valley. The term for the two seats vacated by the BJP leaders Sushil Kumar Modi and Vinod Narayan Jha will be completing on July 21, 2022. Hussain will be a nominee for the remaining term of the seat in the Bihar legislative council.

Known to be the youngest Cabinet minister of India when Hussain was elevated as Union Minister for Civil Aviation in the council of the ministers headed by the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he was seen on the margins of the saffron outfit, with the party denying him Lok Sabha nominations in the 2019 general elect ions af ter Bhagalpur constituency had gone into the kitty of JD(U).

While Hussain was the Muslim face of the BJP in the Vajpayee Cabinet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi filled the role with the Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Even while Hussain wasn’t considered for the Rajya Sabha nominations, he continued putting forth party’s view points as a spokesperson, while taking the role of a campaigner in state elections.

Hussain had campaigned in Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, and he recently camped in the Kashmir valley for the District Development Council (DDC) polls, with the saffron outfit bagging three seats there. Hussain had made his debut in the Lok Sabha in 1999, winning the Kishanganj Lok Sabha, and afterwards he shifted base to Bhagalpur, while representing the constituency after 2006 bypoll on the seat and 2009. He had lost the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.