Tag Archives: Kunwar Danish Ali

Muslims emerge as homogeneous entity backing INDIA bloc in Uttar Pradesh

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INDIA :

The INDIA bloc’s Muslim candidates had a victory rate of 83 per cent in the Lok Sabha polls.

Afzal Ansari of the SP who won from Ghazipur (File photo| PTI)

Lucknow :

Muslim voters, who make up a considerable 19 per cent of the population in Uttar Pradesh and are a deciding factor in around a dozen Lok Sabha seats in the state, emerged as a homogenous entity consolidating in favour of the INDIA bloc in the 2024 polls.

The community stood so solidly behind the SP-Congress candidates that all the 20 Muslim candidates fielded by the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lost, getting only a miniscule fraction of their votes.

The INDIA bloc’s Muslim candidates had a victory rate of 83 per cent in the Lok Sabha polls. All the four Muslim candidates fielded by the Samajwadi Party won, while one of the two Congress candidates emerged victorious.

Although the BJP leadership including PM Modi exhorted the Muslim community in the recently concluded election to vote keeping in mind the future of their generations, yet the community backed the Congress and SP combo.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, three of the six Muslims MPs who made it to Lok Sabha from UP — Danish Ali (Amroha), Afzal Ansari (Ghazipur) and Fazlur Rehman (Saharanpur) — were from the BSP.

Moreover, the INDIA bloc had fielded Muslim candidate strategically in constituencies with over 40 per cent Muslim electoral population except Ghazipur which has 27 per cent Muslim voters but with an added edge of being the bastion of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari. Afzal Ansari sailed through from the constituency as SP candidate this time.

The other Muslim candidates who won in the state are Imran Masood of the Congress from Saharanpur which has approximately 42 per cent Muslim voters, Mohibullah Nadvi of the SP from Rampur which has around 51 per cent Muslim voters (the highest in UP), Iqra Hasan of the SP from Kairana, her family bastion, with 40 per cent Muslim voters and Zia-ur-Rehman of the SP from Sambhal which has around 45 per cent Muslim voters.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Nation / by Namita Bajpai / June 12th, 2024

8 to be elected unopposed as Sunni Waqf Board members

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Lucknow, UTTAR PRADESH :

A total of eight members are elected to the Sunni Waqf based on a system of quota from different sections.

TWO CANDIDATES who had filed nomination for election to the membership of the Sunni Waqf Board withdrew their papers on Friday, paving the way for eight members to be elected unopposed and without an election. Only Sunni Muslims are allowed to contest polls for the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board and the election was scheduled to be held on March 7, Sunday.

A total of eight members are elected to the Sunni Waqf based on a system of quota from different sections. Of the eight members, two are selected from mutawalli (caretaker) quota, two from MP quota, two from MLA/MLC quota and two from bar council quota.

A total of 10 candidates had filed their nomination on Thursday. Two of them withdrew their papers on Friday: Samajwadi Party MLC from Amroha Parwez Ali and SP MLA from Sambhal Iqbal Mehmood. They had filed their papers under the MLA/MLC quota.

“The two withdrew their nomination on Friday. Now, no election will be needed as there are eight candidates and the same number of seats,” said Election Officer and special secretary of UP Minority Welfare and Waqf Department, Shiwa Kant Dwivedi.

About the election of chairman of the board, he said, “Once the notification for election of these members is done, a date will be decided when the eight members can elect a chairman.”

The members who will be elected as board members are former chairman Zufar Ahmad Farooqui, Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) Trust member Adnan Farrukh. The two had filed their nomination under the mutawalli quota which permits caretakers of Waqf properties with an annual income of Rs 1 lakh or more to file for getting elected as a member of the Board.

The two candidates who filed under the MP quota are Samajwadi Party MP from Moradabad S T Hasan, and BSP MP from Amroha Kunwar Danish Ali. Under the MLA/MLC quota, SP MLA from Isauli (Sultanpur) Abrar Ahmad and SP MLA from Gopalpur (Azamgarh) Nafees Ahmad.

Under the Bar Council quota, lawyers Imran Mabood and Abdul Razzaq had filed their nominations and will be elected as members.

On January 25, the Allahabad High Court had set aside the state government’s order extending the term of the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board. The court appointed the Principal Secretary of Minority Welfare and Waqf the board’s administrator and the official was told to ensure that polls are held, and hand over charge to an elected board by February 28.

The last Board was appointed as per the Waqf Act of 1995 on April 1, 2015, for a five-year term. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic , the state government extended its term by six months, and on September 30 last year, extended it by six more months.

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Cities> Lucknow / by Express News Service, Lucknow / March 06th, 2021

Long wait for closure for family of Border Roads Organisation engineer

Community Involvement / Social Issues, Martyrs of the Nation, , , , ,

Balrampur, UTTAR PRADESH :

Missing engineer Subhan Ali.   | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Subhan Ali’s vehicle fell off the road and plunged into the Drass river that flows into Pakistan last June, but the process of matching his DNA with those of his parents is far from over.

The wait for the family of Subhan Ali, a 27-year-old civil engineer posted with the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) who went missing after an accident on the Zozila-Kargil-Leh road last June, just got longer.

Son of a tailor from Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh, the Indian Engineering Service (IES) officer had been posted in Ladakh as part of the General Reserve Engineering Force (GREF) of the BRO when his vehicle fell off the road and plunged into the Drass river that flows into Pakistan.

Though the Pakistani side had recovered an unidentified body on Shingo river close to the Line of Control (LoC) on 27 June, the process of matching the DNA with Mr. Ali’s parents is far from over.

Lok Sabha member and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Kunwar Danish Ali had taken up the case with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in July last year.

Now, eight months later, Mr. Singh informed his Lok Sabha colleague that the DNA matching process would need more time as “the sample is in a queue”.

“It is learnt that DNA matching analysis at FSL [Forensic Science Laboratory], Chandigarh, is in queue and it may take 3-6 months before the report is received. Further action will be taken on receipt of report from FSL, Chandigarh,” Mr. Singh said in his letter dated February 11.

On June 22 last year, Mr. Ali, along with his driver, Palwinder Singh, went missing after their vehicle fell into the Drass and got swept away by the fast flowing river.

While the Gypsy and the driver’s body were recovered from the river, the engineer’s body remained untraceable.

Five days later, Pakistani authorities reported the finding of an unidentified body from Shingo river close to the LoC on 27 June. Following up the lead, the Army Headquarters coordinated with Pakistani authorities to collect the DNA samples of the unidentified body.

The DNA samples of the unidentified body were received by Kargil police at Tangdhar on August 22, 2020. Two months later, the DNA samples of his parents were also collected on October 28, 2020 and was forwarded to the FSL, Chandigarh.

“But since then, it has been a long wait for the family. They have been waiting for a sense of closure to this tragic chapter. Even now, they may have to wait for another six months. I would request the government to speed up the process of DNA sample matching and provide them some relief,” the BSP MP told The Hindu on Sunday.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National /by Sandeep Phukan / New Delhi – February 28th, 2021

BSP appoints Munquad Ali as UP party chief, Danish Ali removed as leader in LS

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UTTAR PRADESH :

Former MP Munquad Ali is the party’s state unit chief. Munqad Ali is one of the few party leaders who have remained with the BSP through its thick and thin.

MP Munquad Ali is the party’s state unit chief.

Shyam Singh Yadav, MP Jaunpur BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party), has replaced Danish Ali as the leader of the party in Lok Sabha. While MP Ritesh Pandey, MP from Ambedkar Nagar, has been appointed Deputy leader of the party in Lok Sabha, former MP Munquad Ali is the party’s state unit chief.

Munqad Ali is one of the few party leaders who have remained with the BSP through its thick and thin.

In a statement, BSP chief Mayawati said Ali, a dedicated party worker, began his political career with the party.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is putting efforts to prevent erosion of its Muslim base following its support to the scrapping of Article 370.

The outgoing BSP state chief RS Kushwaha has been made general secretary at the national level.

The changes, as per the sources, have been made to implement the ‘Sarv Samaj’ concept of the party. According to a press note, BSP leader Girish Chandra Jatav will remain as Chief Whip of the party in the Lok Sabha.

source: http://www.indiatoday.in / India Today / Home> News> India / by India Today Web Desk, Lucknow / August 07th, 2019

India’s Chankayas | Meet Danish Ali, Gowdas’ Aide For Long

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NEW DELHI / UTTAR PRADESH :

Ali has joined the BSP, but the Gowdas still look up to him for counsel on important decisions

DanishAliMPOs23mar2019

Last May, a crowd milled around Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H. D. Deve Gowda’s home in Bangalore where the needle—after a nail-biting end to the state elections—had finally come to rest. Gowda, and his son H.D. Kumaraswamy, were the men of the moment. And, a tumultuous week later, the father-son duo were at the centre of a political panoply that set the tone for what’s now the key word in the 2019 election season—alliance.

Therefore, it was with some surprise that many received news of Gowda’s pointsman in Delhi, Kunwar Danish Ali, joining the BSP. Ali, party insiders say, has been one of Gowda’s aides for long. He’d been visible this past year as the JD(S) opened up a hotline with Rahul Gandhi. “The love and affection he gave to me is incomparable. That will continue,” Ali tells Outlook, explaining that his move would enable him to contest elections in home-state UP, something he couldn’t have done on a JD(S) ticket. “It was also his wish that I should enter the Lok Sabha,” says Ali. “Nobody can break my relationship with Gowda and Kumaraswamy.”

Gowda and Mayawati had a pre-poll seat-sharing pact for the 2018 Karnataka elections—Ali, again, was instrumental in making that happen. Among Gowda’s longstanding lieutenants is Y.S.V. Datta, a former party legislator who was for long its spokesman. But, as a party insider put it, “if Gowda wants grassroots information, he’ll go to his old friends in (hometown) Paduvalahippe. And, just as easily seek out experts if he wants advice”.

The Gowda family, despite its internal power wrangles, is closely-knit, observers say. While Kumaraswamy is the party’s face, his elder brother Revanna manages the family’s pocketborough of Hassan. Besides, there are siblings and their spouses with varied professional backgrounds (former bureaucrat, surgeon etc) who stay away from the limelight.

Kumaraswamy’s inner circle comprised a clutch of five-six former party legislators, including Zameer Ahmed Khan, Chaluvarayaswamy, and H.C. Balkrishna. It was a coterie that had stood by him in 2006 when he had made a dramatic bid to seize power and become Karnataka CM, defying his father. But that circle had fallen out. “The situation was different. Now, it’s him and Gowdaji,” says a party leader. These days, for political decisions, Kumaraswamy relies on two-three cabinet ministers. On occasion, Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar too advises him.

source:  http://www.outlookindia.com / Outlook / Home> Magazine> National / by Ajay Sukumaran / March 21st, 2019

Danish Ali’s moment in the sun

Community Involvement / Social Issues, Karnataka (under research project), Leaders, , , , ,

Hapur, UTTAR PRADESH / NEW DELHI / KARNATAKA :

Key player: JD(S) leader Danish Ali (left) with party supremo H.D. Deve Gowda.
Key player: JD(S) leader Danish Ali (left) with party supremo H.D. Deve Gowda.

Gowda loyalist and JD(S) stalwart piloted alliance with Congress

The speed with which the Congress-Janata Dal(S) alliance came about on the afternoon of May 15 was a matter of much surprise to those who knew the strained relations between the two parties. That the alliance was stitched up, publicly announced and on the road to Raj Bhavan far ahead of the BJP’s move, was the product of three days of intense backroom talks between the two parties.

While the role of Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad is now well-known, the part played by JD(S)’ secretary general Kunwar Danish Ali remained unknown until he made it to all the photo-ops of Karnataka Chief Minister-designate H.D. Kumaraswamy with Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

According to sources, it was a midnight call between Mr. Azad and Mr. Ali on May 13, two days before the results were out, that set the ball rolling.

“It was clear to the JD(S) that talk of a secret deal with the BJP during the campaign had resulted in a desertion by minorities. The Congress, too, anticipated a less than stellar performance,” said a source. Mr. Ali was instrumental in speaking to both former prime minister Deve Gowda and Mr. Kumaraswamy about Mr. Azad’s call, but only on the night of May 14.

“Mr. Deve Gowda just told him to speak to Mr. Kumaraswamy, while the latter was a bit apprehensive after the bitter campaign by the Congress,” said a source. Mr. Deve Gowda was for a wait and watch approach, sources said, but Mr. Kumaraswamy, once convinced by Mr. Ali, issued a public statement sealing the alliance.

“He was convinced that this alliance would have far-reaching consequences for the 2019 polls too,” said a source.

Mr. Ali, 54, had also sewn up the party’s alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the All Indian Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) before the polls, with the BSP contesting in 20 seats and winning one, a historic first for them.

He entered politics as the national president of the Janata Dal student wing in 1994, as a student in Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University, and has stuck with the Gowdas through thick and thin. He came to the attention of the former prime minister especially during the 1994 Assembly polls in Karnataka when he was speaking at a rally in Ramanagara.

In his more than quarter of a century with the Janata Dal(S) and its earlier avatar, Mr. Ali has contested one Assembly poll from Garhmukhteswar in Uttar Pradesh, the State he hails from. Apart from his grand uncle, Kunwar Mahmood Ali, who owed allegiance to the Indian National Lok Dal under late prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, and was Governor of Madhya Pradesh between 1992-93, no one else from his family is in politics.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Nistula Hebbar / New Delhi – May 23rd, 2018