Uroosa Imran Rana, a Congress candidate from Unnao’s Purwa seat, is set to lose her seat. She is the daughter of Urdu poet Munawwar Rana, who has repeatedly indicated that if Yogi Adityanath is re-elected as Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister, he will leave the state.
Remarkably, Uroosa Rana received just 1083 votes till 04:11 PM, while NOTA received 1385 votes. As of now, Uroosa is ranked fifth on the Purwa seat.
BJP’s Anil Kumar Singh is leading by over 22,000 votes from Samajwadi Party’s Uday Raj in that seat.
As the counting of votes proceeds, it is visible that the Congress party is lagging behind in all the states as of now.
Uroosa’s relationship with Congress stretches back to 2010 when the Mayawati-led BSP was in power in Uttar Pradesh. Uroosa was promoted to vice-president of the Uttar Pradesh Mahila Congress in October 2020 (Central Zone). It’s also worth mentioning that Uroosa Rana, who is contesting on a Congress ticket from the Purwa seat, took part in the nationwide anti-CAA rallies that erupted after the Citizenship Amendment Act was passed in December 2019.
Uroosa also accused Uttar Pradesh Congress party chairman Ajay Kumar Lallu of misbehaving with her when she went to visit Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Lucknow in 2021.
Controversies around Munawwar Rana
Munawwar Rana stated last year that if Mahant Yogi Adityanath gets re-elected as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, he will depart the state. However, he maintained his statement with a condition that if Yogi Adityanath is re-elected Chief Minister with the support of AIMIM supremo Asaduddin Owaisi, he will leave the state.
Rana further said that Muslims have eight children because they are afraid that two of their children would be labeled terrorists and killed and one will die because to Covid-19, therefore at least one child should be present for burial. He made the remarks while discussing a prospective population control bill.
A police complaint was also filed last year, against Munawwar Rana at the Hazratganj police station in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow for communally inflammatory statements after he equated Ramayana author Maharshi Valmiki to the Taliban.