After civic bodies’ elections, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati has continued to woo Muslims.

According to sources, she has so far given tickets to Dr Mujahid Hussain from Amroha, Irfan Saifi from Moradabad and Anees Ahmed aka Phool Babu from Pilibhit parliamentary constituencies.

The sources say that apart from the reserved Nagina Lok Sabha seat, preparations are being made by the BSP to field Muslim candidates on the remaining three seats of the Moradabad division.

The candidate from Moradabad, Irfan Saifi, a resident of Thakurdwara, runs a rice mill. He entered politics in 2012 and contested the first election for the post of chairman of Thakurdwara municipal council as an independent candidate but lost. After this, a by-election was held for the post of chairman of Thakurdwara municipal council in 2015 but once again he faced defeat. He also lost the third election in 2018 but finally in 2023, Irfan Saifi again contested for the same post as an independent and this time he got success. He took BSP membership just a few months back and finally got a ticket. 

Nagina MP and Moradabad-Bareilly division in-charge of the party, Girishchandra, said that all BSP workers at the district level would support the candidate with full strength.

BSP chief sector incharge of Moradabad, Meerut, Saharanpur divisions, Rajkumar Gautam, said that preparations had already been made in six assembly segments of Moradabad and the candidate had been announced as per the instructions of the party.

Gautam also announced the ticket of Anees Ahmed Khan aka Phool Babu from Pilibhit Lok Sabha constituency.

Addressing party workers in a conference held at Shafi Degree College on Sunday, the party in-charge of western Uttar Pradesh said that BSP national president and former chief minister Mayawati had expressed confidence in former minister Phool Babu and declared him the candidate for Pilibhit Baheri Lok Sabha seat. He said that Dalit, backwards and Muslim voters should unite and use all their strength to make the candidate win with a huge margin.

Phool Babu is a three-time MLA and was a minister in the Mayawati-led government.

The sources said that the party would field Dr Mujahid Hussain from Amroha Lok Sabha constituency.

The sitting BSP MP from Amroha, Danish Ali, has already been removed from the party for anti-party activities and he is likely to contest the election this time on Congress ticket.