RLD wins U.P.’s Kairana Lok Sabha seat by over 50,000 votes

The terribly humid weather did not deter supporters of the Rashtriya Lok Dal’s (RLD) Begum Tabassum Hasan (48) from beating drums and bursting crackers. Ms. Hasan had defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Mriganka Singh by over 50,000 votes in the Lok Sabha by-election here. The result was declared on Wednesday. With her symbolically important victory, Ms. Hasan, the widow of former MP Munawwar Hasan, has become the only Muslim Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh.

Mriganka Singh is the daughter of Hukum Singh, whose death had necessitated the by-poll. The late Mr. Singh had won the seat with an impressive margin of over 2 lakh votes in the 2014 general elections.

Ms. Hasan who hails from an influential political family in Kairana, told the media that by defeating the BJP in Kairana, “the arrogance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has been buried in dust.”

“I can quite confidently say that our victory would certainty have been much bigger had the faulty EVMs not been used here.I have no hesitation in saying that the BJP will get only three seats in the next general elections,” said Ms. Hasan.