The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Thursday expelled its MLA Pooja Pal for anti-party activities, hours after she praised Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for ending the terror of mafia Atiq Ahmed. The SP issued a letter to her and said she indulged in activities against its interests despite repeated warnings. It stated that Pal’s actions amounted to “serious indiscipline” and that she was being removed from all party posts with immediate effect.

Pooja Pal is the widow of Raju Pal, former  Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) MLA  who was killed in a shootout by gangster Atiq Ahmed in Prayagraj in 2005. Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were shot dead by killers who posed as journalists outside a hospital in Prayagraj, where they were being taken for medical checkup in April 2023. The killing was captured live on television. 

The SP, led by Akhilesh Yadav, said that Pooja Pal, who represents Chail assembly constituency in Kaushambi district, would no longer be allowed to attend any party programme or meeting, nor be invited to any such event.

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What Pooja Pal said in UP assembly

The Uttar Pradesh assembly was discussing the ‘Vision 2047’ document when Pooja Pal stood up to thank CM Yogi Adityanath. “I want to thank Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for seeing my hidden tears that no one noticed for years. My grief and pain were acknowledged and justice was delivered,” she said.

She said there are many such bereaved families in Prayagraj who have “received justice” under CM Adityanath. “Countless women have lost their husbands, countless mothers have lost their sons, and I thank the CM who brought in a zero-tolerance policy to wipe out criminals and mafias like Atiq Ahmad,” Pooja Pal added.

“I thank the CM for reducing mafia like Atiq Ahmad to dust,” she further said. Notably, She had defeated strongman Atiq Ahmad in 2012 assembly elections.

Because ‘I mentioned Atiq Ahmed’ 

Pooja Pal said that the reason she has been expelled from the party was that she named Atiq Ahmed in the assembly. She said thousands of people in Prayagraj praise CM Yogi, irrespective of religion, but her “fault” was that she named mafia and gangster Atiq Ahmed.

“There is no reason for this. Earlier, I had even praised the Chief Minister. This is not something unusual, because thousands of people in Prayagraj—whether from the Hindu or Muslim community—thank Yogi ji. My only ‘fault’ is that I mentioned mafia leader Atiq Ahmed and spoke about my personal life…” she said.

“…Perhaps you could not hear the women in Prayagraj who were even more worried than me. But I am their voice, I have been elected as an MLA and sent to the Assembly. I am the voice of mothers and sisters who have lost their loved ones. They have sent me here. All people in Prayagraj who were disturbed due to Atiq Ahmed have been given justice by the CM, not just to Pooja Pal,” she said in an apparent jibe at Samajwadi Party.

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“I have been saying this from day 1, even when I was in the party. I have been expelled only today. I stand by my statement even today. I became an MLA later but I am a victim woman first, a wife first…We could not stand the incident that occurred with us…They speak of PDA. I too belong to a backward community, I was troubled, I stepped out of my house because my husband was killed in broad daylight, I was a newly-wed bride and there was nobody at my home…They have proven that they are completely against PDA,” the MLA further said.

Pooja Pal’s 2nd expulsion in 6 years

This is not the first time that Pooja Pal has been expelled from a party. Interestingly, she was fielded by the SP in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, after she was expelled from the BSP. Mayawati had taken the decision in February 2018 after Pooja Pal  met with BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

In 2019, she was the SP candidate from Unnao Lok Sabha seat in central Uttar Pradesh and took on BJP’s firebrand Hindutva leader and the party candidate Sakshi Maharaj, who is MP from Unnao. 

Meanwhile, UP Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak called the expulsion Samajwadi Party’s “anti-women approach”. He said that such a decision reflects the “ghatia soch (cheap mindset)” of the Samajwadi Party. 

“The entire House has unanimously accepted that the policy of the Samajwadi Party is anti-women.”