Congress candidate Firdous won the Barabati Cuttack assembly seat, defeating runner-up Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Purna Chandra Mahapatra by a margin of 8,001 votes.
talk PTIFirdous said the people of Cuttack believed in “brotherhood” and had proved that religion had no bearing in matters of development.
“For me, religion is nothing but a means of worship to a supreme power, an invisible power. I believe spirituality is essential for all communities – Hindus, Muslims, Christians and any other. It unites people and gives them strength,” she said.
The 32-year-old state legislator said he has close friends among Hindus who never see him as different from them.
“As a child, I offered prayers at school, participated in the local Durga Puja and enjoyed all the inter-religious festivals that make Cuttack the city of brotherly love,” said Firdous, an engineering graduate.
Firdous, who is Odisha’s first Muslim woman MP, said, “First of all, I am proud to be an Odisha and an Indian. People voted for me because I am a daughter of Cuttack. The fact that I am a Muslim is just a coincidence, something that didn’t happen earlier.”
In the nearly 90-year history of the Odisha Assembly, over 140 women have been elected to the assembly, but none of them were Muslim.
“The title of the first Muslim woman MP from Odisha was given to me automatically. I thank God for all of this. I am happy,” she said.
Firdous, who also heads a real estate company founded by his father, said his ideal politician was Nandini Satpathi, who served as chief minister of Odisha state from 1972 to 1976 under the Congress government.
When asked why he entered politics despite his background in engineering and business, Firdous said he was suited to it because his father, Mohammed Moqim, was a “popular Congress leader” and was embroiled in a lawsuit that forced him to enter the field “very early.”
Her father Mohammed Mokim was elected from the same seat in the 2019 elections. He could not contest the 2024 elections as he was convicted in the Odisha Rural Housing Development Corporation (ORHDC) loan fraud case.
“I had to enter electoral politics as my father was embroiled in a legal case and could not contest this election. I never thought I would enter politics so soon. I am contesting the 2024 elections to safeguard my father’s legacy and complete his work in the Barabati Cuttack Assembly,” she said.
The young Congress leader said he campaigned for his father in the 2019 elections and had also managed his father’s election campaign earlier.
“The people of my constituency elected me keeping in mind my father’s work and my career in the last five years. They have confidence in their daughter and I will support them in all circumstances,” Firdous said.
Asked about his father’s conviction ahead of the elections, Firdous said, “My father was targeted for political reasons. The people of Odisha have taken a stand against the BJD government in this election.”
The BJD, which had been in power in the state for 24 years, lost the elections to the BJP. In Firdous constituency, the BJD came third after the Indian National Congress and the BJP.
Firdous, an engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, said the Indian National Congress has had a strong voice on many issues in Parliament even when it had only nine members.
“Currently, in the 147-member Lok Sabha, the party has 14 members while the main opposition BJD has 51. The opposition has now become very strong and will play a major role,” she said.
