The Congress on Friday released the seventh list of its 35 candidates for the April-May Lok Sabha election. Poet Imran Pratapgarhi has been nominated from Moradabad where Babbar’s candidature was announced earlier.
The party shifted Uttar Pradesh state unit chief Raj Babbar from Moradabad to Fatehpur Sikri, the party said in a statement.
Who is Imran Pratapgarhi?
Pratapgarhi was born Mohammed Imran Khan on August 6, 1987 in UP’s Pratapgarh district, to Mohammed Iliyas Khan, a Unani medicine practitioner and Sajida Khan, a homemaker.
Just like poet-politician Kumar Vishwas emerged from conventions, Imran Pratapgarhi in the same way made his identities with the mushaira. In his poetry, there is more talk of community and politics.
Imran studied Hindi from Allahabad University. He has a good hold in both Hindi and Urdu languages. Imran started writing poems and shayaris from the fifth class. Pratapgarhi started participating in mushairas in 2008 and the nazm that brought him instant fame was Madrasa. In 2010, he was invited to a mushaira in Mumbai, where he recited it and a recording was widely-shared, bringing him unexpected fame. He is admired greatly among the the Muslim community as well as all the poets.
Pratapgarhi has now written over 100 nazms, including Filisteen (about the suppression of Palestinians), Najeeb (about the disappearance of JNU student Najeeb Ahmed), and Umar (about the victims of mob lynchings).
With the seventh list, the total number of Lok Sabha candidates declared by the Congress so far stands at 181.
