Draft:Abdul Salam (BJP politician)

Dr. M Abdul Salam  (born 1952) is an Indian professor of Agronomy who was the Vice Chancellor of Calicut University from 2011 to 2015. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was considered an only Muslim candidate who got the Lok Sabha election ticket in the first list of 195 people declared on 2 March 2024.

Education
Salam had his BSc in Agriculture from the University of Kerala in 1973. He subsequently began his MSc in Agronomy in Kerala Agricultural University in 1976. He later completed his Ph.D. from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in 1984, and postdoctoral study in 1991 at the University of Aberdeen in the UK.

From 2011 until 2015, he served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calicut.

Politics
After being nominated by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) in 2019, he became a member of the BJP at a time when the party was trying to expand its ranks among people of colour.

He is the BJP's nominee for the predominantly Muslim Malappuram constituency, where he will face V Vaseef of the CPI(M) and E T Muhammed Basheer of the IUML in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Controversy
In a report by On Manorama, the finance committee of the University of Calicut held an investigation over the financial irregularities and favouritism allegatiins against Abdul Salam, who was the then Vice Chancellor. The investigation report were incorporated in the letter sent by the University's registrar to the India Higher Educational Secretary. In total, there were 19 charges which later was announced Abdul as non guilty.