CURATED BY – GAURAV SINGHAL | CITYCHIEFNEWS

Deoband (Saharanpur). Deoband of Saharanpur, the first Lok Sabha seat to go to polls on 19 April in the first phase of the 18th Lok Sabha, is a major city which is famous worldwide by the name of Darul Uloom Deoband, the Islamic learning center of the Muslims of Deobandi Maslak. The special thing is that no political person resident of Deoband got a chance to contest the Lok Sabha elections. It is a different matter that Jamiat Ulamae Hind, a religious and social organization of Muslims, which supported Gandhi and Congress in the freedom struggle and strongly opposed the partition of India and the Muslim League. One of its leaders, late Maulana Asad Madani, was made a member of the Rajya Sabha three times by the Congress party from Uttar Pradesh and his son Mahmood Madani was a member of the Rajya Sabha from SP-RLD from 2006 to 2012. Mahmood Madani and his brother of the same family have contested elections from Lok Sabha seats Amroha etc. of Uttar Pradesh. Of course, Masood Madani of this family had contested the last assembly elections from Asuddin Owaisi's party. In which he had to face complete defeat. This time, resident of Deoband area and District Panchayat member Majid Ali of Muslim Gada community has been made the candidate from Saharanpur Lok Sabha constituency of Bahujan Samaj Party. Who is facing competition from SP supported Congress candidate Imran Masood and BJP candidate Raghav Lakhanpal Sharma. Keep in mind that there have been 12 Lok Sabha elections from 1977 to 2019. Out of which Rashid Masood was elected as Lok Sabha member maximum five times. This time, Imran Masood, who is joining Congress, is the nephew of Rashid Masood. Muslim MPs have been elected seven times in 12 Lok Sabha elections. Fazalur Rehman Qureshi in 2019 and Mansoor Ali Khan in 1999, both from BSP, were elected MPs. BJP has won the election thrice. Chaudhary Nakli Singh won in 1996 and 1998 and Raghav Lakhanpal Sharma won in 2014. BSP has also won the elections thrice. In 2009, Jagdish Rana had won from this party. The Congress party has been able to register victory only once, in 1984. When its candidate Chaudhary Yashpal Singh won the election by defeating Rashid Masood. It remains to be seen whether Deoband will get representation in the Lok Sabha for the first time in this election.