Former MLA and influential leader from western Uttar Pradesh Imran Masood joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Lucknow on Wednesday after quitting the Samajwadi Party (SP). Mr. Masood, who is considered a Muslim face in the Saharanpur region, where the community is in sizeable numbers, has been made the western U.P. coordinator of the BSP by the party’s national president, Mayawati.
Ms. Mayawati welcomed Mr. Masood to her party. “Imran Masood is a well-known face in Uttar Pradesh, particularly in the western U.P.’s politics. He met me today along with his close aides and joined the BSP with good intentions. We welcome him in our party. Seeing his enthusiasm and dedication to work for the party, Mr. Masood has been made the party’s western U.P. coordinator today itself. He has been given special responsibility to add the minority community with the party,” Ms. Mayawati posted on Twitter in Hindi.
“The Azamgarh bypoll and now the joining of Masood in the BSP is a good sign for U.P. politics. Now, the Muslim community is also believing that to get rid of BJP’s divisive and atrocious politics, the BSP is necessary, not the SP,” the four-time U.P. Chief Minister said.
Mr. Masood, who won the 2007 Assembly polls from the Muzaffarabad seat, has lost the last four elections he contested but is still considered significantly influential among Muslim voters in the region which has a high percentage of Muslim electorate. Before joining the SP during the 2022 Assembly polls, he was associated with the Congress and fought the 2014 and 2019 parliamentary polls, and the 2017 Assembly elections, on a Congress ticket. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Mr. Masood polled roughly four lakh votes in Saharanpur but is remembered for his allegedly threatening speech against the BJP’s then Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi.
Published - October 19, 2022 07:36 pm IST
