MP Assembly Polls: Fatima Siddiqui is BJP’s Lone Muslim Candidate

In the 230 seats in the MP polls, Fatima is BJP’s only Muslim candidate. She’s been given ticket from Bhopal North.

Fatima Rasool Siddiqui is BJP’s lone Muslim candidate in the MP Assembly polls.

(Photo: The Quint/Shadab Moizee)

Video Editor: Vishal Kumar, Abhishek Sharma

Fatima Rasool Siddiqui is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s lone Muslim candidate in the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections. She is the daughter of late Rasool Ahmed Siddiqui who was a senior Congress leader and a two-time Congress MLA from Bhopal North.

In the 230 seats in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, Fatima is BJP’s only Muslim candidate. She has been given a ticket from Bhopal North by the party.

Almost 50 percent of the voters from the Bhopal North are Muslims. Fatima will contest against senior Congress leader and five-time MLA Arif Aqueel. Arif Aqueel had first won the Bhopal North seat in 1992 as a candidate from the Janta Dal. He then joined the Congress and continued to win from that seat.

A medical student and a mother of one, Fatima said the Congress has ceased to be what it was during her father’s time.

When I had joined the BJP, I was surprised by the way Muslims were associated with the party. In the days to come, more Muslims will join the BJP. The BJP had fielded Syeda Shahzadi against Akbaruddin Owaisi. It is not true that BJP does not give tickets to Muslim candidates. It is a good start.

Fatima Rasool Siddiqui, BJP Candidate

BJP Eager for a Win in Bhopal

The contest for the Bhopal North seat in Madhya Pradesh is like a prestige battle for the BJP. The party has played its political card by fielding a Muslim woman candidate in a Muslim-dominated constituency. Fatima got a party ticket the very next day after joining the BJP. Not just that, none other than Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan inaugurated Fatima’s election office.