Ahead of the crucial Assembly elections, in yet another setback for the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, senior party leader Imran Masood on Monday confirmed that he will be switching to the Samajwadi Party soon as he said the fight in the Uttar Pradesh elections is mainly between the SP and the BJP.
Masood’s move was speculated since September after he had openly praised the SP terming it as the main contender for the 2022 UP polls.
“Current political circumstances indicate that there is a direct fight between the BJP and the SP in UP. I held a meeting with my supporters on Monday and they unanimously supported my decision to join the SP. I have sought time from Akhilesh Yadav and I will meet him on Tuesday,” he said.
Masood became an independent MLA from Muzaffarabad Assembly seat in 2007. He defeated Jagdish Singh Rana of the SP.
He has also won the election of Saharanpur Municipality Chairman. In 2012, he contested the Assembly elections from Nakur but lost. In 2014, he contested from Saharanpur on a Congress ticket. In that, he stood second by getting about 4.10 lakh votes. After this, he contested from Nakur Assembly in the 2017 Assembly elections but lost to BJP candidate Dharam Singh Saini by about 1,300 votes. Along with the Assembly, Imran Masood has also tried his luck in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and lost.
Earlier, the former MLA and Congress leader from the western part of the State, Masood had praised SP giving fuel to speculations of him switching over to the party, a few days after he had also met the SP chief Akhilesh at a marriage function.
The exodus in the Congress continues as many senior leaders, including Jitin Prasada switched, over to the BJP recently.
Also, Congress Raebareli (Sadar) MLA Aditi Singh recently switched over to the BJP.
Earlier in November last year another close aide of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Harendra Malik along with his son and State vice-president and former MLA Pankaj Malik had resigned from Congress. The one thing that was common in most of the defections was the allegations of being sidelined and ignored in the party. Also, many senior Congress leaders have expressed their concern regarding the behaviour of people close to Priyanka.