BIJNOR: After fielding Mayawati’s bete noire Naseemuddin Siddiqui from Bijnor, now Congress has fielded another former BSP MP and senior Congress leader Rashid Alvi from Amroha, which will have direct repercussions for BSP candidate Danish Ali. Until now Ali was the lone Muslim candidate from the constituency, which has a sizeable minority voter base.Several Congress leaders were in line to get the ticket from Amroha but the party has reposed its faith on former national spokesperson Alvi, who is a native of Chandpur city in Bijnor district which is near Amroha district. Alvi, 63, was first elected as MP from Amroha seat in 1999 to 2004 on a BSP ticket. However he later switched to Congress. He then became MP in Rajya Sabha in 2004. Congress inducted him as nation spokesperson from 2011 to 2013. He had strong influence on the people of Amroha. He is currently known as a senior Congress leader.There are over 16.33 lakh voters in Amroha parliamentary constituency which includes five assembly segments — Amroha, Dhanaura, Nauganva, Hasanpur and Garh (Hapur) segments. Ali is a native of Garh assembly area and has some influence on the voters.There are around 5.5 lakh Muslim voters, over 1.20 lakh Jats, over 1 lakh Gujjars, around 2.5 to 3 lakh Dalits, 1.5 lakh Sainis and 50,000 Brahmins, among other communities. BJP has retained sitting MP Kanwar Singh Tanwar from Amroha.District president of Congress, Sukhraj Singh said, “Alvi has regenerated energy and confidence among Congress workers. We will win the seat. Our fight is a straight one with BJP candidate Tanwar.”It is notable that in the seat sharing agreement between BSP-SP-RLD, both Amroha and Bijnor went to BSP. Now, there seems to be a three-cornered contest among BJP, BSP-SP-RLD alliance and Congress in these two seats.

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