'Bring Najeeb back, I will vote for you'

New Delhi: The only poll promise which Fatima Nafees, the mother of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed, is looking forward is the one which assures of bringing her son back.

Ms Nafees, a resident of Badaun in Uttar Pradesh which goes to poll on April 23, says representatives of various parties visit her house but they only express “sympathy.”

“I am not looking for those who sympathise with me. I am only looking for those who will assure me that they will bring my son back. That is what I tell representatives of various parties who visit our house. I will cast my vote only for the party which assures me that,” she said.

Najeeb Ahmed, a first-year MSc student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), went missing in 2016 after an altercation with students on campus and has not been traced till date.

“The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had closed the case last October when the agency failed to trace him after a long search. My son’s disappearance has forced me to renegotiate life with Allah, what are political parties then?

“People call me from Delhi saying Najeeb is hiding in Gurgaon, perhaps in Noida. There are others who express fear that he must have been killed and buried at an undisclosed location. With every call, I take the next bus and reach there only to be left disappointed,” she said.

Ms Nafees says her husband, who is a carpenter and has been pinned to bed ever since Najeeb went missing, has similar hopes. Ms Nafees had travelled to Begusarai in Bihar when former JNU Student Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar filed his nomination, a move which attracted criticism on social media. “I am not on social media but my children told me about it. I did not go there to do any politics. I went there as a mother. Kanhaiya stood by me as a son when Najeeb went missing. It’s time I stand by him as a mother. But blessing is all I have to offer,” she said.

Badaun is one of the 80 parliamentary constituencies of Uttar Pradesh. BJP has nominated Sangh Mitra Maurya from the constituency. Congress has fielded Saleem Iqbal Shervani while the Samajwadi Party has reposed faith in its sitting MP, Dharmendra Yadav.