New Delhi, October 15 (IANS). The year was 1998. The results of the 12th Lok Sabha elections were to come. The eyes of the people of the country were fixed on the counting of votes. As the results started coming in, the efforts to form the government also started gaining momentum. No party could get majority in this election, but there were some leaders who were successful in winning the election for the first time. One of them is senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. He is the only Muslim leader of the country who reached Parliament for the first time by winning elections on BJP ticket. Not only this, he also became Minister of State in the then Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
Actually, former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was born on 15 October 1957 in Prayagraj (Allahabad), UP. He did his early education from Prayagraj. After this he did further studies from Allahabad University.
He became active in student politics during his college days. He was also arrested during the Emergency in 1975 and was lodged in Naini Central Jail of Prayagraj. He was counted among those close to Rajnarayan, the socialist leader who defeated Indira Gandhi in the elections. However, when he entered national politics after student politics, he joined BJP.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi contested the elections for the first time as a candidate of Janata Party (Secular), but he could not get any significant success. After this, when he joined BJP, he contested elections from Sadar Assembly seat of Mau district, but he got defeated here also. After this, he also had to face defeat in the 1993 assembly elections.
In the 1998 Lok Sabha elections, BJP fielded him from Rampur Lok Sabha seat of UP. He contested the Lok Sabha elections from Rampur and won. This was the first time that a Muslim face from BJP had reached Parliament after contesting the Lok Sabha elections. After this, he was also made the Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting in the then Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
During his political career, Naqvi was a member of the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh from 2010 to 2016. Apart from this, he was appointed member of Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand in 2016. In the year 2014, he was also made the Minister of State for Minority Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs in the Modi government. On 12 July 2016, she got the independent charge of the Ministry of Minority Affairs after Najma Heptulla resigned from the post. He was again included in the cabinet in the year 2019 during the second term of Modi government. However, in July 2022, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi resigned from the post of Union Minister.
Naqvi also wrote three books during his political career, including Syah (1991), Danga (1998) and Vaishali (2008). Naqvi married Seema Naqvi on 8 June 1983 and they have a son.
–IANS
FM/ABM
