-Rajesh Mishra
Lucknow: Congress’s national secretary and close to the Gandhi family, West UP’s strong leader Imran Masood will now ride a bicycle. Imran Masood has decided to leave the party and go with Akhilesh Yadav and two of his close MLAs will also be with him. Imran Masood has influence in many districts including Saharanpur, Bijnor, Moradabad, Muzaffarnagar in West Uttar Pradesh. Congress’ strong leader in the West, former MP Harendra Malik and his former MLA son Pankaj Malik also left the party and joined the SP a few days ago.
Before deciding to leave the Congress, Imran Masood had called a meeting of his supporters in Saharanpur. After the meeting, he said that Akhilesh Yadav will be supported for a government that protects youth, farmers, development and women. Imran said that soon he will join the Samajwadi Party along with his supporters. Imran Masood has now sought time to meet Akhilesh Yadav. In the last election, Imran lost the election by getting more than 80,000 votes, but due to his influence, Congress got two seats in Saharanpur.
Discussion intensified about two MLAs
Since the announcement of Imran Masood leaving the Congress, the discussion about two MLAs has also intensified. Both these MLAs are from Saharanpur and Imran Masood has played a big role in getting them ticket to victory. Congress’s Saharanpur MLA Naresh Saini and MLA Masood Akhtar are said to be set to join the Samajwadi Party along with Imran. One of these MLAs was also present in the meeting called by Imran on Monday, while the other MLAs are members of his family.
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Congress MLAs have already defected
The Congress party, which won seven seats in the last assembly elections, will have just two people left in the event of two more MLAs switching sides. Congress’s Rae Bareli MLAs Rakesh Pratap Singh and Aditi Singh have already left and joined the BJP. After the resignation of both Saharanpur MLAs Masood Akhtar and Naresh Saini, only state president Ajay Kumar Lallu, Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra Mona and Kanpur MLA Sohail Ansari are left. Congress’s Legislative Council member Dinesh Singh of Rae Bareli has already left the party before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
There was speculation earlier also
It is worth noting that even before this, there were reports of Imran joining the SP for several months. However, he has been denying this, citing relations with Rahul. Once he had even said that there is a lot of pressure from my people to join SP but the chain of love of Rahul Gandhi is lying in my feet. When Imran Masood made a controversial statement about chopping bowtie in 2014, Rahul Gandhi stood by him. In the West, whether it is the distribution of tickets or the appointment of office bearers, the Gandhi family has always given preference to Imran. However, Imran was not attending Congress programs for the last two months.