LUCKNOW: Days after prominent Barelvi Sect leader Maulana Tauqeer Raza announced his support for the Congress, his former daughter-in-law and one of the alleged victims of instant triple talaq, Nida Khan, joined the BJP on Sunday.
Khan joined the party in the presence of former UP BJP chief and chairman of joining committee Laxmikant Bajpai. Former BSP MLA Shivcharan Prajapati also joined the saffron party along with his supporters.
"Women have been safe under the BJP rule," stressed Khan, who once termed Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi as her sister. She insisted that the BJP's fight against triple talaq brought her closer to the party.
She said that criminalisation of instant Triple Talaq have diminished the ordeals of Muslim women to a great extent. "Earlier, when I ran an institution, women used to visit it thrice or four times a week and confide they were given triple talaq by their husbands on trivial issues," she said.
Khan's induction, analysts said, could arm BJP to blunt opposition aggrssive Muslim outreach, especially in the west and Rohilkhand region which go to polls in the first three phases.
She took a swipe at Congress saying that the party gave the name of the campaign 'Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon' but did not do anything for women safety. This comes after Congress' campaign face, Priyanka Maurya, defected to the saffron camp.
Nida is the former wife of Sheeran Raza Khan, the son of Usman Raza Khan of Ala Hazarat clan of Bareilly. Usman Raza Khan is the elder brother of Tauqeer Raza Khan. Sheeran divorced Nida through instant triple talaq within a year of their marriage. But Nida waged a court battle against this and also became an activist, extending help to other women.
