Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi not on BJP’s Rajya Sabha list

National

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the BJP’s single Muslim minister in the Cabinet, does not appear on the party’s list of nominees for the Rajya Sabha biennial election, which is set for June 10. The deadline for submitting nominations was Tuesday. On July 7, 2022, Naqvi will leave the Upper House.

According to ANI, the BJP has limited all of its party officials to a maximum of three terms in the Rajya Sabha, and Naqvi is presently serving his third term in the House.

According to the reports, Naqvi, who is from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, may be selected by the BJP as a contender in the upcoming bypoll for the Lok Sabha seat vacated by Azam Khan.

The by-election for the seat is slated on June 23 this year.

There are also rumours that the Minority Affairs Minister would be elevated to Governor, as various state government positions have been empty for quite some time.

With the BJP’s refusal to renominate Naqvi to the Upper House, and no renominations to the Rajya Sabha for Sayyed Zafar Islam or MJ Akbar, both of whom are nearing the end of their terms, the party currently has no Muslim members in Parliament.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, a student leader who was imprisoned during the 1975 emergency and has been affiliated with the BJP from the Jan Sangh days, began his career as a student leader.

Naqvi gained a Lok Sabha seat in 1998 after an unsuccessful run in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 1980, and went on to become the Minister for Information and Broadcasting in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet.

Since 2014, Naqvi has served as the Minister of Minority Affairs in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet.