Meerut: Political rift in one of the strongest political families of Kairana has posed a major challenge for Mahagathbandhan. Tabassum Hasan, wife of late MP Munavvar Hasan, who is the SP-BSP-RLD combine’s candidate here against BJP’s Mriganka Singh, daughter of late MP Hukum Singh, now faces another challenge from within her own family. Her brother-in-law Kawar Hasan has filed nomination for the bypoll to be held on May 28 from Lok Dal Party.Sensing a spoilsport, the family tried to pacify Hasan in a panchayat, but he has decided to stick to his ground and started a bitter campaign against the Grand Alliance. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he had contested against his own nephew Nahid Hasan, which had resulted in BJP taking advantage of split of sizeable minority votes in Kairana Lok Sabha constituency.The Kairana Lok Sabha seat has around 17 lakh voters, including three lakh Muslims, four lakh backward castes (Jat, Gujjar, Saini, Kashyap, Prajapati and others) and about 1.5 lakh Dalits. Tabassum Hasan had successfully contested Lok Sabha poll from the seat in 2009 defeating BJP’s Hukum singh.“I also want the family to contest as one, but when greed creeps in, how can you expect the family to stay as one? You want to be the MP, the MLA and keep the zila panchayat posts from the same side of the family then how does one expect the family to be one if you are not willing to grow heart?” Kawar Hasan had said in the panchayat called at Nahid Hasan’s house.At the panchayat, a resolution was floated that the family will back Kawar Hasan during the next legislative election in 2022 if he backs Tabassum Hasan's candidature in the LS bypolls. The proposal was rejected by Kawar Hasan who dubbed it as unacceptable and later filed his nominations from Lok Dal.Meanwhile, RLD has dubbed Kawar Hasan as a BJP “agent” who has donned the role of “vote katwa” to hurt Grand Alliance’s prospects.“Lok Dal is an anonymous party and it’s BJP that is helping Kawar Hasan from the backdoor. BJP has done this is in past too, to divide minority votes but Muslims in Kairana see Kawar Hasan as a villain. People will never vote for him,” Raj Kumar Sangwan, a senior RLD functionary, said.

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