BJP on Wednesday nominated its spokesperson and former banker Syed Zafar Islam who had once asked Muslims to come out of the ‘captivity of self-styled secular parties’, to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.
He will fill up the vacancy caused by the death of Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh.
The Election Commission of India had on Aug 21 announced to hold on September 11 by-elections to the Council of States from Uttar Pradesh to fill up a casual vacancy following the demise of Singh.
The low-profile Islam has been the BJP spokesperson for some time but scored high with the leadership recently after he helped facilitate the entry of Congress heavyweight and former Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to the BJP. . Islam and Scindia have studied together and knew each other for about two-decades.
Islam had old business school ties with Scindia and was an important communication channel between the BJP high command and the former Congress leader.
A former managing director of the Deutsche Bank and now a BJP spokesperson had once written an article for Indian Muslims on behalf of the Hindutva camp e titled ‘Why Muslims must give BJP a fair chance: The community has devalued its own vote by becoming captive to self-styled secular parties’.