With Samajwadi Party facing anger from party MLAs over the statement of Yashwant Sinha calling Mulayam Singh Yadav an “ISI agent}, party chief Akhilesh Yadav resorted to dinner diplomacy on the eve of the polling for the presidential election.
Mohammed Tahir, SP MLA from Isauli-Sultanpur, hosted the dinner and all 111 MLAs of the party were directed to attend the dinner.
Yashwant Sinha is the opposition candidate in the presidential election. The dinner is an attempt to win over the SP MLAs not happy with the party’s decision to support the joint opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.
SP MLAs, particularly Muslim MLAs are unhappy with Yashwant Sinha for his statement calling SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav “an ISI agent”’. SP ally Suheldev Bhartiya Samajwadi Party (SBSP) has already broken ranks with the opposition and its chief Om Prakash Rajbhar has announced to vote for National Democratic Alliance candidate Droupadi Murmu.
Shivpal Yadav, SP MLA and uncle of Akhilesh Yadav, has also announced to support Droupadi Murmu. On Saturday, he had shot off a letter to Akhilesh Yadav, asking him to reconsider SP’s support to Yashwant Sinha as the opposition presidential candidate had called Mulayam Singh Yadav an ISI agent.
The statement of Yashwant Sinha about Mulayam Singh Yadav threatened to snowball into a major controversy on the eve of the polling for the presidential elections, thus forcing the SP chief to resort to dinner diplomacy to pacify his party MLAs.
Sources in the Samajwadi Party said after the over two decade old newspaper clipping appeared on social media where Yashwant Sinha accused Mulayam Singh Yadav of being an “ISI agent”, several SP MLAs were furious. Several MLAs met Akhilesh Yadav and told him that Yashwant Sinha must issue a clarification over the old statement. One SP MLA said Yashwant Sinha should tender unconditional apology for the statement
Out of 111 members in the UP Assembly, Samajwadi Party has 35 Muslim MLAs and they are not comfortable with the statement of Yashwant Sinha calling Mulayam Singh an agent of ISI, the intelligence agency of Pakistan. To pacify the Muslim MLAs, Akhilesh Yadav asked one of the Muslim MLAs, Mohammed Tahir, to host a dinner at Lucknow.
Mohammed Tahir, however, said no political motives should be attributed to the dinner as such an event ahead of election to Rajya Sabha, UP Legislative Council and president’s election was an old tradition of the Samajwadi Party.
SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar has already announced his support for Droupadi Murmu. Rajbhar was not invited to the dinner hosted by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in honour of Yashwant Sinha earlier this month. Later Rajbhar had attended a dinner hosted by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath when Droupadi Murmu visited Lucknow. He had also met Droupadi Murmu and pledged his party’s support to her as she comes from a tribal community.
Preetam Srivastava
Ex-BSP MLC
Mahmood Ali
held in Mumbai
PNS | Lucknow
Former member of Legislative Council, Mahmood Ali, was arrested from Mumbai by Saharanpur police, officials said on Sunday.
According to the police, Mahmood Ali was arrested in Mumbai late on Saturday night. He is the brother of former MLC Haji Iqbal, allegedly a member of a mining mafia.
A senior police official said that Mahmood was presented in a court in Mumbai, and efforts were on to bring him to Saharanpur on remand.
Senior Superintendent of Police Vipin Tada said that two days ago the police had announced a reward of Rs 25,000 each on Haji Iqbal and his brother Mahmood Ali, who were wanted in different cases.
He added that efforts were on to search out Haji Iqbal. Three sons of Haji Iqbal have already been arrested in different cases.
The SSP also said that cases were registered against Haji Iqbal, his brother and family members in different FIRs and efforts were on to arrest them.
Both the brothers have been BSP MLCs. Haji Iqbal was an MLC from 2010 to 2016, while Mahmood Ali was an MLC from 2016 to 2022.
It may be mentioned that mining mafia Haji Iqbal had become close to the then Chief Minister and BSP supremo Mayawati due to his immense wealth. Haji Iqbal became MLC in 2010 on a BSP ticket on money power to make a stronghold in the ministry and secretariat.
Not only this, when his term ended in 2016, Haji Iqbal got his younger brother Mahmood Ali elected as MLC.
Recently, the Saharanpur administration started a crackdown on his family and several cases which include those under the Gangsters Act, were registered against them besides a case of money laundering by the sleuths of the Enforcement Directorate.
His assets worth several crores of rupees have been attached by the police while local administration demolished his huge bungalow worth over Rs 2 crore.