Two-time Rajya Sabha MP Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi Gets Ministry of Minority Affairs

New Delhi: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the member of Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand for the last two terms, will retain charge as the Minority Affairs minister. Political Past

The 61-year-old has been active in politics right from his student days, and has participated in several socio-political movements, including the JP movement. At the age of 17, Naqvi was jailed for political activity in 1975 during the Emergency years under the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

After dabbling with the Janata Party for some time as a student leader, Naqvi unsuccessfully fought his debut election from Allahabad West for the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly as a Janata Party (Secular) candidate in 1980.

The same year, Naqvi also contested as an Independent candidate from Ayodhya. However, it was only in 1998 that he won his first Lok Sabha elections from UP’s Rampur constituency from where he contested on a BJP ticket.

After becoming an MP from Rampur, Naqvi grew to become a prominent Muslim face in the BJP, bagging the post of Minister of State for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, with additional charge of the ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.

When Modi first came to power in 2014, Naqvi was made the Minister of State for Minority Affairs. He took up independent charge of the ministry when Najma Heptullah, former minister for minority affairs, resigned in 2016.

Apart from being a two-time member of Rajya Sabha as well as a Union minister, Naqvi is also a spokesperson of the party and was one of the 11 vice-presidents appointed by Amit Shah in 2014. He is a member of several key parliamentary committees and is a strong party voice in the Rajya Sabha. He is also the party’s go-to person when it needs to explain a stand on minority issues.