Bahujan Samaj Party leader and meat baron Haji Yakub Qureshi will be contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha election from the Meerut-Hapur seat against BJP’s sitting Member of Parliament Rajendra Agrawal.
Qureshi, who is a four-time Mayor from Meerut, had made headlines after he announced a bounty of Rs 51 crore for beheading the cartoonists of France based publication Charlie Hebdo for publishing the cartoon of Prophet Mohammad. Qureshi later announced to give the said amount to the terrorists who had barged into the office of Charlie Hebdo armed with lethal weapons and killed 12 people including 8 journalists. Qureshi was also reportedly involved in attacking environment activists who had started a movement for banning the meat plants to save the environment.
Qureshi is the owner of meat company Al Fahim Meatex Private Limited which is said to be one of the largest buffalo meat exporters in India. His meat company has recently been under the scanner of law enforcement authorities regarding certain illegalities. In the month of February this year, some parts of his meat factory were sealed by the authorities for not having the required sanction for the map of the factory. Meerut’s environment has been affected due to a large number of meat factories in the region. Addressing the problem of illegal meat factories, CM Yogi Adityanath had ordered the closing down of the illegal slaughterhouses in State soon after he became the CM in 2017.
Along with Qureshi, his children also do not seem to have any fear of the law. His son Haji Imran Qureshi was reportedly involved in grabbing the land of farmers and also giving death threats to the owners of the land. Qureshi’s daughter had also made headlines back in 2017 when she reportedly beat up the teachers and students with a hunter in Meerut Public School where her daughter was studying. The video of the incident had gone viral in which she is seen carrying a hunter with her in the school premises.
With a considerably large Muslim population in the Meerut area, Qureshi stands good chances of winning the current Lok Sabha election if he is able to consolidate the Muslim vote in his favour.
