Bangla Press Desk: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced its new national executive, with several new faces finding a place in party president Nitin Nabin’s team.With the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections due next year, the inclusion of two Muslim leaders from the state, former Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) vice-chancellor Professor Tariq Mansoor and UP BJP Minority Morcha president Kunwar Basit Ali, has drawn attention.
Mansoor has been retained as national vice-president, while Basit Ali has been made the BJP’s national minority morcha chief as part of the organisational reshuffle.
Ali’s elevation to the BJP’s national team, alongside Mansoor, gives the party two distinct Muslim faces from Uttar Pradesh as the BJP seeks to expand its outreach among sections of the Muslim community. Both leaders have been associated with the BJP’s efforts to reach out to Muslim voters, although their political journeys and areas of influence are different.
Tariq Mansoor: AMU VC to BJP national VP
Mansoor, currently a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, is a Pasmanda Muslim, a community the BJP has been wooing. His appointment is significant given his background. Mansoor is the first serving or former AMU vice-chancellor to enter electoral politics through the BJP. In AMU’s century-long history, previous vice-chancellors have largely been associated with political parties other than the BJP.
Mansoor has also maintained close relations with senior BJP and RSS leaders. He attended an RSS event at Delhi’s Red Fort in May, where RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was also present. His proximity to senior members of the Sangh and BJP is often discussed in political circles.
His political journey began after decades in academia and medical administration. He joined the BJP in 2023 and was subsequently elected to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.
A senior functionary in the state BJP told ThePrint that Mansoor, who belongs to the Qureshi community, also fits into the BJP’s broader outreach to Pasmanda Muslims.
“Mansoor’s elevation as national vice-president again underlines the party’s importance attached to him as a Muslim face, particularly at a time when the party is seeking to expand its outreach among sections of the Muslim community, particularly liberals and Pasmandas,” a senior functionary in the state BJP told ThePrint.
Born in Aligarh, 70-year-old Mansoor comes from an academic family. His father, Professor Hafizur Rahman, was chairman and dean of AMU’s Faculty of Law. Mansoor’s wife, Professor Hamida Tariq, is associated with Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College.
Mansoor studied at Our Lady of Fatima School in Aligarh before pursuing his medical education at AMU. He completed his MBBS from Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in 1978 and MS in 1982.
He served as a clinical registrar at the medical college between 1980 and 1983 and later worked as its chief medical officer from 1983 to 1985. He also worked as a surgical specialist at King Fahd Teaching Hospital in Saudi Arabia between 1985 and 1986.
After returning to AMU, Mansoor joined the medical college as an assistant professor in 1986 and became an associate professor in 1993. He served as a professor from 2002 to 2013 and later became principal and chief medical superintendent of the medical college.
In 2017, he was appointed AMU vice-chancellor, a position he held until entering active politics. Mansoor’s association with AMU extended beyond teaching and administration.
He has also served on several national bodies, including the Medical Council of India, the Board of Governors of IIM Lucknow and the governing body of the Maulana Azad Education Foundation.
He was also nominated to the Padma Awards Committee, which selects recipients of one of the country’s highest civilian honours.
Kunwar Basit Ali: Organiser of ‘Shukriya Modi bhaijaan campaign’
Kunwar Basit Ali, 40, represents another side of the BJP’s outreach to Muslims. A resident of Kayastha Badda village in Meerut’s Kithore Assembly constituency, he has risen through the party ranks over the past decade. He began his BJP career in 2011 as Mandal Adhyaksh of the Minority Morcha in UP. He later became district media in-charge and was appointed district president of the BJP Minority Morcha in 2012.
He subsequently served as a regional coordinator of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch before being given a larger role in the state organisation.
Belonging to the Muslim Rajput community, Ali’s organisational work eventually led to his appointment as president of the Uttar Pradesh BJP Minority Morcha in 2021.
Ali has also served as a member of the Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy and has remained active in grassroots outreach. He has promoted initiatives such as yoga programmes in madrasas and the party’s ‘Modi Mitra’ campaign.
Ali came into wider national attention in 2023 when the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh Minority Morcha compiled Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio addresses into an Urdu-language book as part of its outreach to Muslim voters.
Titled Wazir-e-Azam Ali Janab Narendra Modi Ke Mann Ki Baat Urdu Ke Saath, the 150-page publication brought together 12 episodes of Modi’s radio programme broadcast in 2022. The party printed around one lakh copies for distribution during Ramzan.
At the time, Ali said the initiative was aimed at reaching sections of society that remained distant from Modi and the BJP, and helping them understand the Prime Minister’s signalling.
Ali also launched a special campaign called ‘Shukriya Modi Bhaijaan’ in Lok Sabha constituencies ahead of the 2024 general election to reach out to Muslim women.
Under the campaign, the BJP set a target of reaching out to at least 1,000 Muslim women in every Lok Sabha constituency to inform them about various welfare schemes of the Modi government.
During the Lok Sabha elections, Ali also worked on increasing the participation of Muslim women as polling agents.
Ali has also consistently supported the BJP government’s legislation against instant triple talaq, arguing that the law has strengthened the rights and security of Muslim women.
“It is a big opportunity for me, and I am grateful to the party for continuously giving opportunities to a small worker like me. We will now expand our outreach at the national level,” Ali told ThePrint.
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