Lucknow: Aligarh Muslim University’s (AMU) vice-chancellor and son of a former key aide of PM Narendra Modi are among six candidates the Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has nominated for Members of Legislative Council (MLC) posts.
A notification issued by Special Secretary Chandra Shekhar late Monday states that the names of Rajnikant Maheshwari, Saket Mishra, Lalji Nirmal, Tariq Mansoor, Ramsurat Rajbhar and Hansraj Vishwakarma have been nominated by the governor for the UP legislative council.
The nomination of AMU V-C Tariq Mansoor, who was given a “rare” one-year extension in March 2022, is being seen as the BJP’s attempt to reach out to the Muslim community.
Another prominent name proposed is that of Saket Misra, son of retired IAS officer Nripendra Misra, who served as principal secretary to the prime minister between 2014 and 2019.
Misra, who was given the third-highest civilian award in the country in 2021, the Padma Bhushan, has served as the chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and telecom secretary. He is also the chairman of the Ram Temple construction committee.
Saket, an alumnus of IIM Calcutta and Delhi University’s St Stephen’s College, is an investment banker and advisor to the Poorvanchal Vikas Board.
Ahead of the 2019 elections, he was a probable candidate for a BJP ticket from the Shrawasti Lok Sabha seat and was even quoted as saying that the decision of giving a ticket rested with “God and the BJP leadership” and he “would fight election if given a ticket or else, serve the people”.
However, the ticket eventually went to Daddan Mishra who was defeated by BSP’s Ram Shiromani Verma.
The list has a Muslim, a Brahmin, a Vaishya, two from the OBC community while one from the Dalit community.
A state BJP leader confirmed to ThePrint that these names were sent to the governor as recommendation by the Yogi Adityanath government.
“Out of the names, Mansoor is a Muslim face while Nirmal comes from the Dalit community. Rajbhar and Vishwakarma represent the OBC community. Misra is a Brahmin while Maheshwari hails from the Vaishya community,” he said.
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‘Nothing to be proud of’
Speaking to ThePrint, an AMU official said on the condition of anonymity that Mansoor was considered close to former UP chief minister, the late Kalyan Singh, and was well connected in the Aligarh region.
“He belongs to a well-educated family from Aligarh and has served as a teacher for years. He taught at the J.N. Medical College of AMU and also became the head of the college in the 1980s. He also represented the sports association of AMU,” the official said.
However, varsity insiders see his nomination as a “disappointment”, saying that AMU V-Cs have served on much higher positions in the past.
“His becoming an MLC is nothing to be proud of because AMU V-Cs have held higher positions than this after serving in this institution. One of our V-Cs went on to become the president of India (Dr Zakir Husain, 1967-69) while another became the vice-president (Md Hamid Ansari, 2007-17) … his becoming an MLC is perhaps a disappointment,” AMU professor Nadeem Rezavi said to ThePrint.
Meanwhile, among the other nominees, Rajbhar has been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP for decades and was recently fielded against SP’s Ramakant Yadav from Phoolpur-Pawai legislative assembly seat. However, he lost that election.
Vishwarma, who is known to be a Kalyan Singh loyalist, is serving as the BJP’s Varanasi district president at present.
Lalji Prasad Nirmal has held the positions of the head of UP SC/ST Finances and Development Corporation and the chairman of the Bharat Ratna Dr Ambedkar Cultural Centre.
Maheshwari, who belongs to Kasganj area, has served as the head of the Braj region of the BJP and has been one of its star campaigners.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)