Shambhulal Regar, man arrested for lynching Muslim man on camera, may contest 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Agra

Shambhulal Regar, the man arrested for burning and lynching a Muslim man in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand will most likely contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Agra, according to media reports. He has been offered a ticket by the Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena, a lesser known political outfit in UP, and he has reportedly accepted the offer. [caption id=“attachment_5205671” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Shambhulal Regar. News18[/caption] “The Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena has decided that for the Agra Lok Sabha seat, the party’s candidate will be Shambhulal Regar. He will contest the election from inside Jodhpur jail, where he is currently lodged,” Amit Jani, national president of the Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena, told News18. “We want only Hindutva faces to contest elections on our party’s tickets and there can be nobody better than him. We will soon make a formal announcement,” Jani said, according to the News18 report. In December 2017, Regar had hacked to death a Bengali migrant worker, Mohd Afrazul who was working in Rajsamand. Justifying the act, he had said in a video message , that he burnt the man to “save a girl from love jihad“. “Jihadists, leave our country or you will meet the same fate,” he was seen as saying in the video. In March 2018, the murder accused was honoured in Jodhpur on the occasion of Ram Navami and a tableau was taken out by some men in his honour, local media reported. And it is due the rise in his popularity among the Hindu community in the state, that he has been offered a political entry. The Agra seat is reserved for members of Scheduled Castes (SC) and is currently held by BJP’s Ramshankar Katheria, the chairman of the National Commission of Scheduled Castes (NCSC). According to the News18 report, Jani defended giving ticket to Regar saying that, “people like Atique Ahmed, Mukhtar Ansari and Raja Bhaiyya have far more serious cases against their names” and even Shahabuddin contested elections, therefore Regar should be given a chance as “he is innocent until proven guilty - a murder accused, not a murderer.” However, Jani himself has been arrested in the past for threats to JNUSU leader Kanhaiya Kumar  and in October 2017, a FIR was registered against him for asking people from various Hindu organisations to illegally gather at Taj Mahal.