By Muslim Mirror Special Correspondent

New Delhi:  In a bid to woo Shia votes, Congress party may field noted activist Tehseen Poonawalla    against the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh who is again contesting from in Lucknow parliamentary seat where Shias are in a significant number.

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Congress sources told Muslim Mirror that Tehseen has emerged as a strong candidate for the Lucknow seat because of his leadership skills,  his Shia lineage as well as closeness to the party high command.  He proved himself a par excellence spokesperson, lawyer political analyst and a social activist as well as a Congress ideologue.

Sources further told that he belongs to an influential Shia family and that perhaps is the reason for him to be considered for the prestigious Lucknow parliamentary seat.  The Nawabi city Lucknow has around 5.2 lakhs  Shia population while in rest of the districts of UP, their population ranged between 15,000 to 40,000.  Population arithmetic suggests that Rajnath Singh may face a tough fight if Poonawalla were nominated by the Congress.

Poonawallla shot to  limelight after he filed a  petition in Supreme Court against  cow vigilantism and mob lynching in 2017.Taking the notice of his petition the Apex court  condemned  the practice of cow vigilantism, lynching and mob violence, the Court  also  issued a host of guidelines underlining preventive, remedial and punitive measures for the purposes of preventing such heinous activities. The SC also  told  the Parliament to bring special law against mob lynching.

In his petition Poonawalla had sought direction to respondent-States to take immediate and necessary action against the  so-called cow protection groups indulging in violence and further to issue a direction to remove the violent contents from the social media uploaded and hosted by the said groups.

The three-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court headed by the then  Chief Justice Dipak Misra termed the act of lynching as unlawful while condemning the inhumane act of cow vigilantes he observed:

“That there cannot be a right higher than the right to live with dignity and further to be treated with humanness that the law provides. What the law provides may be taken away by lawful means; that is the fundamental concept of law. No one is entitled to shake the said foundation. No citizen can assault the human dignity of another, for such an action would comatose the majesty of law. In a civilized society, it is the fear of law that prevents crimes. Commencing from the legal space of democratic Athens till the legal system of modern societies today, the law makers try to prevent crimes and make the people aware of the same but some persons who develop masterly skill to transgress the law jostle in the streets that eventually leads to an atmosphere which witnesses bloodshed and tears. When the preventive measures face failure, the crime takes place and then there have to be remedial and punitive measures. Steps to be taken at every stage for implementation of law are extremely important.”

By this petition, Poonawala has succeeded in bringing the issue of mob-lynching to the corridors of power and the the government was compelled  to issue directions to  the state governments.  People in Lucknow told Muslim Mirror that if Poonawala contest election, he can give a run for money to the BJP candidate. It  is said,  in the last election, a good number of Shia voters tilted towards the BJP candidate  that scenario may change with the advent of Poonawala in the fray.