BJP's lone Muslim candidate praises Shivraj Singh Chouhan's work

The lone Muslim candidate fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Madhya Pradesh polls Monday said she joined the saffron party as she was impressed by the good work being done by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for all sections of the society.

Fatima Rasool Siddique, daughter of a former state minister and Congress leader Rasool Ahmed Siddique, said she saw Chouhan, who was heading the BJP government in the state since 2005, as a "secular" politician.

She joined the BJP last Thursday and hours later, the 35-year-old got the party ticket to fight the upcoming Assembly polls from the Bhopal North seat against five-time MLA of the Congress, Arif Aqueel, who had contested against her father in 1993.

The BJP had fielded a Muslim candidate from Bhopal North, which has a sizeable population of the minority community, in the last Assembly polls also. In the 2013 polls, BJP's Arif Beg had lost to Aqueel by a margin of 7,000 votes.

The family of Fatima Siddique, testing electoral waters for the first time, has strong links with the Congress. Her father had won from Bhopal North as the Congress candidate twice -- in 1980 and 1985.

However, Rasool Siddique lost the election from Bhopal North in 1993 to the BJP's Ramesh Sharma. Aqueel, then in the Janata Dal, was also in the fray from the seat.

After Rasool Siddique's death 20 years ago, his wife sought the Congress ticket from Bhopal North but did not get it, Fatima Siddique's husband Abdul Salam told PTI.

Since then, the family had been feeling let down by the Congress, an acquaintance of Fatima Siddique said.

Fatima Siddique said her father was a staunch advocate of "Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb" (secularism) all his life.

The same was seen in Chouhan, she said, adding that the chief minister was doing good work and taking care of people of all castes and creed.

"One of my priorities is to work towards improving the education infrastructure in my region," she said.

The Congress has fielded three Muslim candidates in the November 28 polls for the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly.

Besides Aqueel, the other two Muslim nominees of the opposition party are Arif Masood (Bhopal Central) and Massarat Shahid (Siron in Vidisha district).

The poll results will be announced on December 11.

(With inputs from agencies.)