Young Iqra Choudhary Who Broke BJP Fort In Kairana, Reclaims Family Stronghold

INDIA alliance’ Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Iqra Choudhary has won from the Kairana Parliament constituency in Uttar Pradesh. The young SP candidate has made success by securing more than five lakh votes against her rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Pradeep Kumar. The success of 29-year-old Iqra against the ruling party from Kairana has made headlines. The young Muslim candidate has created history with the margin of 69,116 votes.

This is not the first time Iqra has been engaged in electoral politics. She has been campaigning for her family candidates in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections since 2014. In 2015, she has contested to Zila Panchayath elections in UP. In 2022 Assembly elections in UP, she has actively participated in the campaigning for her brother Nahid Hassan in Kairana. Then, she had also filed nomination from the same seat to face the situation if in case of any eventuality.

She belongs to Hassan family, which always remained a rival for BJP in Kairana. This is the fifth time Hassan family member is winning from Kairana seat. She is the daughter of Munawwar Hasan and Tabassum Hassan, both were representatives of the same seat in 1996 and 2009 elections from SP and BSP respectively. In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, her mother Tabassum Hassan as an SP candidate lost to BJP’s Pradeep Kumar, whom Iqra defeated in 2024. Iqra is the granddaughter of Chaudhary Akthar Hasan, the head of Hasan family. Akthar Hasan had won the seat in 1984 elections representing Congress by defeating Chaudhary Shyam Singh of Lok Dal.

Notably, this time Iqra Choudhary’s vote share has increased compared to her mother Tabassum Hassan and brother Nahid Hasan.

Iqra holds graduation in History degree from Lady Shri Ram College, a law degree from University of Delhi, and post-graduation in International Law and Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), which is part of the University of London in 2020.