3 days ago
SP expels MLA Pooja Pal hours after she praises Yogi for ‘reducing mafia to dust'
The Samajwadi Party on Thursday expelled its MLA from the Chail constituency, Pooja Pal, on the charges of 'anti-party activities', hours after she praised Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for 'keeping his word and reducing the mafias like Atiq Ahmad to dust', during a special session of the state Assembly.
Atiq, a former MP and MLA, and his brother Ashraf were shot dead at point-blank range by three assailants while being escorted by police for a medical check-up in Prayagraj in April 2023.
The SP's expulsion letter read, '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.'
Pal is the widow of former Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Raju Pal who was killed in a 2005 Prayagraj shootout carried out allegedly at the behest of Atiq Ahmed.
Pal, who was handed over the expulsion letter on the Assembly premises itself, maintained that she genuinely wanted to thank the Chief Minister for keeping his words and that her only fault was that she took the name of Atiq Ahmad in the House while conveying her gratitude to Adityanath.
'I did not say anything about the Samajwadi Party. Before becoming an MLA, I was a married woman of just nine days who lost her husband. So when I got a chance to speak on the '2047 vision', I wanted to thank the CM for getting me justice after 18 long years. This was all. Why did it trouble the SP?' she asked.
The SP leadership, she said, will have to make its stand clear whether it is with the families of the Prayagraj shootout victims or with those killed in police encounters.
Carrying the expulsion letter, signed by SP president Akhilesh Yadav, in her hand, she added, 'I have struggled throughout my life. I got associated with the thinking of Akhilesh ji that unlike Mulayam ji he did not like the mafia. But when I got justice, I saw his double standards. When the CM asserted that he would reduce the mafia to dust and actually did it, the SP leaders were in pain.'
Earlier, speaking in the House during the special 24-hour-long debate on 'UP Vision 2047' on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, the Chail legislator said, 'I lost my husband who was a member of this House. The entire House knows how my husband was killed and who all killed him. I want to thank the Chief Minister, who saw my silent tears, which were overlooked by others for ages. He got me justice in a true manner.'
While her statement got a thumping applause from the treasury benches, it left the Samajwadi Party MLAs surprised.
Later, speaking to The Indian Express, one of the SP MLAs, who attended the special session, said, 'It was not really that surprising as she was already moving in that direction.'
Pal had been sulking for a while and even met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the Maha Kumbh earlier this year, he said, adding that there were also reports of her supporting the BJP candidate in the Phulpur byelection.
Pooja Pal first became MLA from Allahabad West in 2007 on a BSP ticket and won from the seat again in 2012 but lost in the 2017 election. She, however, joined the Samajwadi Party before the 2022 Assembly polls and was given a ticket from Kaushambi district's Chail constituency from where got elected.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Brajesh Pathak said Pal's expulsion reflected the Samajwadi Party's 'anti-women approach'. 'The expulsion of Pooja Pal for supporting the vision of developed India' in the House on the eve of Independence Day reflects the 'ghatia soch' (cheap mindset) of the Samajwadi Party. The entire House unanimously accepted that the party's policy is anti-women,' he said.
— PTI inputs
