BJP has no Muslim face in Rajya Sabha

New Delhi, Jun 04: The BJP will have no Muslim representative in the Rajya Sabha once the terms of Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Syed Zafar Islam, and M J Akbar end in June-July.

While Akbar will retire on June 29, Islam and Naqvi would retire on July 4 and 7 respectively. In the Lok Sabha, Saumitra Khan from West Bengal will be the lone minority face of the BJP. Mehboob Ali Kaiser of the Lok Jan Shakti Party, an NDA ally would take the tally to two.

Naqvi who is the minority affairs minister will have to get elected if he has to retain his Cabinet berth. Reports say that he may be fielded in the Rampur by-elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The President of India has the authority to nominate 12 MPs to the Rajya Sabha. Currently there are seven vacancies in this category.

The BJP is most likely to get a Muslim leader into the Rajya Sabha using this route.

In the 2019 elections, the BJP had fielded six Muslim candidates, but all of them lost. The NDA currently has only one Muslim MP. He is Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Mehboob Ali Kaiser from the Lok Sabha seat of Khagaria.