Third time's the charm for 40-year-old Rizwan Arshad. An MLC since 2016, Rizwan is tasting his first success in electoral politics after being unsuccessful in his two previous attempts to win a Parliamentary seat from the Bangalore Central constituency.
Soon after the victory, Rizwan Arshan tweeted a thank you to his constituents.
ಧನ್ಯವಾದ ಶಿವಾಜಿನಗರ! Thank you Shivajinagar! pic.twitter.com/aiBbWC5yIN
— Rizwan Arshad (@ArshadRizwan) December 9, 2019
Rizwan who was formerly Youth Congress President of Karnataka, contested from the Shivajinagar assembly constituency vacated by former minister and veteran politician Roshan Baig.
"I had not expected the Congress to lose in so many segments. We had expectd to win in 6 to 7 segments. But the BJP has power and money and we all know how they go about with elections. We never expected this kind of defeat," Chamarajpet MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan said.
With the BJP not willing to accommodate Roshan Baig, tained in the IMA ponzi scam, Rizwan faced A Saravana, a former corporator of the BJP and Tanveer Ahmed of the JD(S) as his prime competitors.
At 1 pm, Rizwan aced past his nearest rival from the BJP by 15,924 votes. With this Rizwan became the only Congress candidate in Bengaluru to win the bye-polls.
In an interview with TNM in the run-up to the polls, Rizwan was upbeat about his prospects this time around stating that even though he lost in the Lok Sabha elections, he has always maintained a lead from the Shivajinagar areas.
Prior to securing a Lok Sabha ticket, Rizwan was active in student politics. From being the General Secretary of the Karnataka unit of Congress-affiliated NSUI in 1998 to become the first elected president of Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress in 2011. In between, Rizwan had also held the position of National Secretary of the Indian Youth Congress before joining the electoral battle in 2014.