Congress has fielded Dr Maskoor Ahmad Usmani, a former Aligarh Muslim University Students Union (AMUSU) president. Nothing wrong in that but for the notoriety Usmani had earned when he hung a portrait of Pakistan’s founding father Mohammad Ali Jinnah in the AMU campus.
Usmani would contest from Jale constituency in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections.
Interestingly, Congress denied ticket to former railways minister Lalit Narayan Mishra’s grandson Rishi Mishra who had joined Congress after leaving Janata Dal (United) and fielded Usmani.
A miffed Mishra has called Usmani a follower of Jinnah. He said he would have been okay if someone else would have received the ticket instead of Usmani. BJP leader and member of parliament, Giriraj Singh also questioned the party and the “mahagathbandhan” to answer why did they field a supporter of Jinnah from Jale constituency.
Usmani entered student politics in 2016. He became AMUSU president in 2017. He not only protested in support of Jinnah’s portrait in the AMU he even wrote to the President of India, seeking his intervention in 2018. Usmani had also opposed the CAA and the NRC.
