LUCKNOW: In a not so surprising move, Nida Khan, the daughter-in-law of Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan, joined the saffron brigade here on Sunday ahead of the crucial Uttar Pradesh elections.
The founder of Ittehad-e-Millat Council, a victim of triple talaq, shot into limelight after she challenged the dual ideologies of her father-in-law who is a senior cleric of the Barelvi sect of Sunni Muslims. While joining the BJP, Nida claimed that Muslim women were safe under the BJP rule in UP.
Notably, Tauqeer Raza had extended his outfit’s support to the Congress last fortnight.
Interacting with media persons after joining the BJP, Nida, who was married to Sheeran Raza Khan, said that the law against triple talaq was the turning point in her life. Sheeran is the son of Tauqeer Raza’s elder brother Maulana Usma Raza Khan alias Anjum Mian. Sheeran had given triple talaq to Nida after a year of their marriage. Nida has been fighting the case in court.
"This is why I support the BJP. The BJP has done a remarkable job by bringing a law against triple talaq. It seems that other parties are just giving slogans for women empowerment and women safety, but only the BJP has proved it," she said.
Taking a jibe at the Congress, she said the party gave the name of the campaign 'Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon' but did not do any work regarding women safety. She stated that her father-in-law had come to Congress 15 days ago but she always supported the BJP. "This is because the BJP ensured the empowerment of Muslim women," she further added.
The BJP had been aggressively raising the issue of Maulana Tauqeer Raza extending support to the Congress slamming the grand old party for promoting a person who has been accused of threatening Hindus and has also allegedly given derogatory comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This comes days after daughter-in-law of Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, Aparna Yadav joined the BJP in Delhi in the presence of senior BJP leaders. Although the move may not have been politically significant, it gave ample ammunition to the BJP to attack the SP over its failure to keep its clan together ahead of the 2022 UP assembly polls.