The formal taking over of charge as Mutawali (head) of Bhopal Awkaf-e-Shahi (royal wakf properties) by Saba Ali Khan, the daughter of late Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi on Monday that too within 40 days of her father’s demise, is a development being watched closely in both the main Opposition Congress and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party camps in the state capital.
Pataudi, who passed away on September 22, had appointed Saba as Naib Mutawali (deputy head) of Awqaf-e-Shahi in 2008. Pataudi’s mother, Sajida Sultan, was the last Begum of the erstwhile princely state of Bhopal.
In 1991 Pataudi had unsuccessfully contested on a Congress ticket in the Lok Sabha Election from Bhopal. He had lost that election to former Madhya Pradesh chief secretary and BJP candidate Sushil Chandra Verma, who recently committed suicide by jumping from the terrace of his house in the state capital.
A BJP MLA from Bhopal, who preferred to remain anonymous, told this newspaper that there is still time for the Lok Sabha general elections.