The agenda to ensure defeat to the BJP in Kairana Lok Sabha by-election has brought together the two political rivals, Imraan Masood of Congress and Nahid Hasan of Samajwadi Party, whose mother is contesting on the seat on RLS ticket supported by the SP.

In a recent political twist, Congress leader Imran and Samajwadi Party MLA from Kairana Nahid declared to go hand in hand against BJP in the by-election. The leaders had a meeting in this regard which was organised on the initiative of Samajwadi Party leader and former minister Balraj Yadav.

It was on the behest of Yadav that both Hasan and Masood decided to come on a single side to defeat the BJP in this by-election.

This is considered as a major political development just a week before the polling in Kairana on 28 May. This is believed to aim at polarising the Muslim votes in favour of the alliance candidate.

Both Nahid and Imran had opposed each other openly in the past elections. Imran is an influential Congress leader from Saharanpur and had declared to contest as Congress candidate from Kairana. But he was asked to step back by the Congress rank and files as the party had decided to support the RLD-SP alliance in this by-election.

Following the Gorakhpur-Phulpur formula, the joint opposition wants to snatch the Kairana and Noorpur seats from the BJP. On Kairana seat the RLD is working hard to ensure defeat for the BJP candidate Mriganka Singh. For this it is getting a good support from SP and Congress parties.

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With Imraan on the side, the support base has increased for RLD. Imran has considerable vote base in Gangoh and Nakul assembly constituencies of Kairana Lok Sabha seat. Imran and his brother Noman have contested the election on Nakul and Gangoh assembly seats in 2017 and both secured second position in spite of Modi wave.

Imraan has a strong hold in their areas. In spite of withdrawing his nomination he was not involved in the campaigning of the alliance candidate. But taking initiative, former SP minister Balram Yadav and influential Gujjar leader of the area Chaudhary Rudra Singh brought Nahid and Imraan together. They visited the Imraan brothers with Nahid and convinced them to extend their wholehearted support to Tabassum Hasan.

Confirming of this new development Imraan said that he is against the ideology of BJP and wants to ensure the defeat of BJP candidate. “For this reason I am supporting the alliance candidate,” he said.

This new development is surely an alarm bell for the BJP which is getting a tough fight in this by-election. The party candidate Mriganka Singh had lost the last assembly election from Kairana seat though his late father Hukum Singh was MP from Kairana than and had a stronghold in the region. BJP is now targeting the sympathy votes and contesting on the issues of development and law and order.

It is believed that the friendship of Imraan and Nahid might be troublesome for the BJP as the Muslim votes are expected to polarise. In Kairana constituency, there are over 5.5 lakh Muslim voters and hence desicive.

On the contrary, the father and son duo and commander of RLD Chaudhury Ajit Singh and Jayant Chaudhary are working hard to get back their Jat vote bank and revive their winning Muslim-Jat equation in this by-election. There are about two lakh Jat voters in the constituency. Out of almost 15 lakh votes in Kairana constituency, almost fifty per cent votes are of Muslims and Jats.