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Meet Dr Abdul Salam – Lone Muslim in BJP List of 195 for Parliament Election 2024

The only Muslim candidate in the BJP’s first list for the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, Dr Abdul Salam has been fielded from the Malappuram Parliamentary seat. Read More

Sunday March 3, 2024 10:11 AM , ummid.com with inputs from Agencies

New Delhi: The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday released its first list of 195 candidates for the 2024 General Elections which has among others the name of Dr Abdul Salam.

The only Muslim candidate in the BJP’s first list for the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, Dr Abdul Salam, has been fielded from the Malappuram Parliamentary seat – a Muslim dominated district and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) bastion in Kerala.

The BJP is lebelled as the Hindu only party. In the current Lok Sabha not a single MP on the treasury benches is Muslim - who constitute around 14 per cent of the total population of India.

The move to field Dr Abdul Salam is seen as an attempt by the BJP to show its inclusive image.

The BJP had not fieleded a single Muslim candidate in the 2019 elections. On the other hand, in the 2014 elections, it had given party tickets to 05 Muslims who included 03 from Jammu Kashmir and 01, Shahnawaz Hussain, who contested from Bihar. None of them however could win the elections.

In the Vajpayee-Advani era, Sikander Bakht used to be the Muslim face in BJP. Then came Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Shahnawaz Hussain. But Shahnawaz Hussain disappeared from the limelight after the defeat in the 2014 polls whereas Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi remained a Member of the Rajya Sabha and Minister in Modi Cabinet. He however was removed from the cabinet in 2022.

About Dr Abdul Salam

Dr Abdul Salam is former Vice Chancellor of Calicut University. Before being appointed Vice-Chancellor of Calicut University in 2011, Dr Salam worked as Professor and Head of the Department (HoD) of Agronomy at the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) in Vellanikkara, Thrissu.

Dr Salam, who has over 31 years of teaching experience in various universities, had also worked as a visiting professor at Kuwait University during 2003-2007.

An Agricultural Scientist by profession, Dr Salam did his graduation from the University of Kerala before M.Sc in Agronomy from the Kerala Agricultural University in 1976, and PhD in Agronomy from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in 1984. He also did his post-doctorate from the University of Aberdeen, the UK, in 1992.

Dr Salam had joined the BJP in 2019. He contested the 2021 Kerala Assembly Elections from the Tirur Assembly constituency in Malappuram district. He however lost his first election to Kurukkoli Moideen of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

Dr Salam had secured only 9,097 votes as against 82,314 votes bagged by Kurukkoli Moideen.

Other prominent faces included in the BJP list for 2024 Lok Sabha polls are Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, Union Minority Minister Smriti Irani from Amethi, Speaker Om Birla from Kota (Rajasthan), Union Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna (Madhya Pradesh) and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Vidhisha (Madhya Pradesh).

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