Expels Amanmani Tripathi from party

In an attempt to attract the Muslim vote bank, the Bahujan Samaj Party has declared former councilor Hashmat Malik as its candidate in the Meerut mayoral election.

The party high command took this decision after a meeting with BSP leaders of Meerut in Lucknow on Tuesday night. This information was given by BSP district president Mohit Anand.

The eyes of all political parties were fixed on the BSP. The BSP was looking for a mayoral candidate in Meerut from Ansari and Malik communities. In line with its approach to the mayoral poll in Meerut, the BSP high command has not only given its ticket to the Malik fraternity but has also attracted Muslims who were angry with the Samajwadi Party alliance by giving Hashmat Malik the ticket. Hashmat Ali was earlier a corporator.

Being an old BSP worker, the party has given him the mayoral ticket on priority. Now it remains to be seen how much the BSP will be able to connect its traditional Dalit votes and the Muslim community with the party.

BSP district president Mohit Anand said that the party had honoured the Muslim community by declaring Hashmat Malik as its mayoral candidate. He said that the party was trying to clear its intention that it would go with the secular values and would give tickets to all deserving Muslim candidates besides Dalits and other community leaders in the next parliamentary elections.

He said that after the announcement of the name of the BSP mayoral candidate, other parties had also become active and now it would be seen which party among the BSP, SP, Rashtriya Lok Dal and Congress would be able to woo the maximum number of Muslim voters.

Discussions were held on three names -- former MP and former mayor Shahid Akhlaq's brother Haji Rashid Akhlaq, Hashmat Malik and big textile businessman Salim Ansari along with another Muslim leader.

Now that the BSP has fielded Hashmat Malik, SP candidate Seema Pradhan may suffer a big loss. In fact, the population of Muslims in Meerut is more than four lakh and Scheduled Caste voters are more than 1.5 lakh. Despite this, the SP gave its ticket to Seema Pradhan, wife of SP MLA Atul Pradhan who belongs to Gujjar community instead of fielding a Muslim. Congress has made Naseem Qureshi its mayoral candidate from Meerut.

Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party on Tuesday expelled Amanmani Tripathi, former MLA from Nautanwa seat in Maharajganj district and BSP candidate in 2022 assembly election. The BSP has accused him of indiscipline and indulging in anti-party activities.

BSP district president Virendra Kumar Rao said that Amanmani was warned several times but there was no improvement in his working style.

Amanmani Tripathi had joined the BSP during the 2022 assembly elections. He contested from Nautanwa assembly seat in 2022 on the BSP ticket. However, he had to face defeat.