Cong nominee is MP Waqf Board chief, with BJP ‘help’

New Delhi, August 13 : There is some good news for the Congress party from Madhya Pradesh. Its candidate for the post of Waqf Board chairperson has won the election unopposed. The success is all the more sweeter because the party could get two BJP nominees in the 13-member board to openly recommend the Congress representative’s name.

Congress veteran Ghufran Azam won the election on Saturday with the support of BJP nominees Shafique Engineer and Moin Ansari. While the former introduced the motion favouring Ghufran, the latter is understood to have seconded it. Sensing that the wind was not in favour of the party, the BJP withdrew its candidate before the election, making it a cakewalk for the former Congress parliamentarian.

A state BJP leader, however, said with “five votes” they could not have got their candidate elected for the post. “We had to then choose between Ghufran and Arif Akeel, the main Congress contender. Once Ghufran managed to sail through, the Congress called him their official candidate,” claimed a senior MP BJP leader.

The only consolation for the BJP is that Ghufran, once a Sanjay Gandhi confidant, has been in the news recently for his anti-Sonia Gandhi diatribe. However, Ghufran, who had been trying to cosy up towards Sonia, has openly reaffirmed his loyalty to the party leadership after he won the elections. The two-time Rajya Sabha MP is understood to have declared that he would remain a loyal Congressman throughout his life.

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