
Pooja Pal Meets Yogi Adityanath Days After Being Ousted From Samajwadi Party
The meeting comes after Pal was expelled from the Samajwadi Party by Chief Akhilesh Yadav for praising CM Yogi Adityanath during the UP Assembly session.
Samajwadi Party expelled her from the party, citing anti-party activities and indiscipline.
"You have carried out anti-party activities, and even after being warned, you did not stop these activities, due to which the party has suffered a lot. The work done by you is anti-party and a serious act of indiscipline. Hence, you are expelled from Samajwadi Party with immediate effect," read the letter of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav addressed to Pooja Pal.
Earlier, while speaking in the UP Assembly, Pooja Pal, whose husband Raju Pal was shot dead by Atiq Ahmed and his associate, thanked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for the zero-tolerance policy against crime that improved law and order in the state.
The SP MLA said that the UP CM gave her justice by bringing in policies like zero tolerance that led to the killing of criminals like Atiq Ahmed.
Speaking at the Assembly's 24-hour marathon discussion on 'Vision Document 2047,' Pooja Pal said, "Everyone knows who murdered my husband (Raju Pal). I want to thank the Chief Minister for bringing me justice and hearing me when nobody else did. The CM gave justice to many other women like me in Prayagraj by bringing in policies like zero tolerance that led to the killing of criminals like Atiq Ahmed. Today, the entire state looks at the CM with trust," she said.
Praising CM Yogi, she said, "Mere pati ke hatyare Atiq Ahmed ko Mukhya Mantri ne mitti mein milaane ka kaam kiya' (The Chief Minister has buried my husband's murderer Atiq Ahmed."
She further said," I raised my voice when I saw that no one wanted to fight against criminals like Atiq Ahmed. When I started getting exhausted with this fight, CM Yogi Adityanath gave me justice."
BSP MLA Raju Pal was shot dead in Prayagraj in 2005, days after his wedding with Pooja Pal. In February 2023, Umesh Pal, a key witness to the murder, was shot dead in Prayagraj's Sulem Saray area.
The expulsion of Pooja Pal for alleged anti-party activities and indiscipline drew sharp criticism from several Uttar Pradesh ministers, who accused the party of being intolerant of differing views and disrespectful towards women.

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SP MLAs also linked the issue to broader accusations that the BJP is neglecting job creation and rural development, with Adityanath countering it by accusing the SP of running a "copying mafia" during its tenure and ignoring infrastructure needs. Mixed reactions are seen in villages with some parents seeing the potential benefits of better facilities and larger peer groups while others worry about safety and dropout risks when children have to travel two or three kilometres to school. Teachers, especially in villages, warn that the distance will weaken their ability to encourage attendance through personal outreach. "Once schools are far away, that connection is lost," a teacher from teacher told PTI, saying that he fears that many children will simply drop out. Education access remains a politically potent theme, particularly among rural and marginalised voters. For the Samajwadi Party, framing the policy as an attack on PDA communities ties directly into its core electoral pitch. The pairing exercise is happening simultaneously in thousands of villages, creating repeated local flashpoints. With panchayat and Assembly elections still ahead, the Opposition appears determined to keep the issue simmering. The SP's PDA Pathshala campaign continues despite police action, while the BJP is using the Assembly and government briefings to project the move as progressive and in line with national education reforms. The government plans to complete the pairing process within weeks and whether that will quiet the political noise, however, remains uncertain.
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New Indian Express
3 hours ago
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Days after SP expulsion for praising CM Yogi Adityanath, Chail MLA Pooja Pal calls on him
LUCKNOW: Chail MLA Pooja Pal, who was recently expelled by Samajwadi Party for anti-party activities, called on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at his official residence in Lucknow. Both the office of the chief minister and the MLA posted about the meeting on micro-blogging site X on Saturday night. "Honourable MLA of Chail assembly constituency of Kaushambi district, Pooja Pal, made a courtesy visit to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow today," the office of Yogi Adityanath said in a post in Hindi. Sharing a photograph of the meeting, Pal said in a post in Hindi, "I once again thank the honourable chief minister. Under his leadership, goons and mafias are shown their rightful place, which is very important for a progressive society." In another X post on Sunday, Pal said, "There are some people who always comment on my personal life and keep writing about it. I have no problem if they write, but they should write the truth, because I contested the election from their party, their leader knows everything..." "They knew I lost the election in 2017. Taking this as an opportunity, some leaders -- Atiq Ahmed (gangster-turned-politician who was shot dead in 2023) and my maternal relatives who wanted to contest the MLA election -- started working to end my political career. I was unable to fight Raju Pal's (her husband) case. A conspiracy was hatched against me by Atiq Ahmed, in which my own family members were involved," she wrote in the long post. She further wrote that after Atiq was murdered, her brothers took up her case. "They told me to get married, that they are with me. But a few days after the marriage, I came to know the truth. These same people were sitting somewhere and talking that now the case against Atiq will be closed. But I will not back off." Pal also mentioned that she has applied for divorce. "Now when I spoke the truth in the assembly, despite knowing everything, out of irritation and revenge, they hatched a conspiracy to tarnish my image and kept writing about my personal life," she said. "Even today, the trust and love of the people remain with me. The people of my city (Prayagraj) West and Chail know everything about my sorrows. That is why their support is still with me. Out of fear of this, some 'samajwadis' are using kinds of tricks to tarnish my image," she added. Pooja Pal was expelled from the Samajwadi Party on Thursday, just hours after she praised Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the Assembly for "reducing to dust" gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, who was accused of murdering her husband Raju Pal in 2005. During the 24-hour special discussion on 'Vision 2047' during the ongoing monsoon session of the Assembly, Pal had said that the present government's anti-crime policies had brought her husband's killers to the ground. "The chief minister has done the work of reducing my husband's murderer Atiq Ahmed into dust. He saw my hidden tears, which no one saw for years," she told the House. Pooja Pal's husband Raju Pal, a former BSP MLA From Prayagraj West, was shot dead nine days after their wedding in January 2005, in an attack linked to Atiq Ahmed. Ahmed, a former MP and multiple-time MLA from Allahabad West, was serving a life sentence when he and his brother Ashraf were shot dead at point-blank range by three assailants while they were being escorted by police for a medical check-up in Prayagraj on April 15, 2023. The killing took place in full view of the media and was broadcast live.