Rashtriya Ulama Council

RUC came into existence on 4 October 2008 and was originally called the Ulama Council. It began as a protest group after two youths from Azamgarh were killed in the Batla House near the area of Jamia Nagar, New Delhi.[1] It was the initiative of Maulana Aamir Rashadi Madni and Maulana Tahir Madni, calling a meeting of religious clerics in Uttar Pradesh, in particular regions of Azamgarh and nearby areas on 4 October 2008.

The Ulama Council booked a train on 29 January 2009 and took thousands of citizens from Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Faizabad, Lucknow, Aligarh, Bijnour, Delhi to protest against the central government and asked for a judicial probe of the encounter. On 20 February 2009, RUC booked two trains and took thousands to convey their protest against the state government. The Ulama Council became a mass movement and transformed into the Rashtriya Ulama Council, a full fledged political party. The party is pursuing the Batla House case through both protests and legal means.

Aftab Azhar Siddeequi from Kishanganj is Vice President of Youth Front of RUC. He is also state incharge of the party from Bihar.

RUC participated in the 2009 parliamentary elections on 5 seats and as expected RUC didn’t win any seat but they secured approximately 2.25 lakh (225,000) votes, unusually successful for a party that was only five months old. It did not ally with other parties.

RUC participated in the Uttar Pradesh 2012 Assembly election, contesting 100 seats out of 401. As expected, the RUC did not win any seats, but they secured nearly 6 lakh (600,000) votes.

• "Ulema Council-led alliance fields 170 candidates". TwoCircles.net. Retrieved 15 May 2013.

• Official Facebook group