Samajwadi Party expels MLA Pooja Pal for 'indiscipline' after praising UP CM Yogi Adityanath

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) on Thursday expelled its MLA Pooja Pal after she heaped praise on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the state Assembly for the latter’s 'zero tolerance' policy toward criminals.

According to the SP sources here, Pooja Pal was expelled for indulging in ‘anti-party activities’.

Pooja Pal, whose husband Raju Pal, then a BSP MLA, was shot dead allegedly by the henchmen of mafia don turned politician Ateeq Ahmed in 2005, said while speaking in the Assembly that she got justice owing to the strict policy of the present dispensation toward the criminals.

‘’Everyone knows who killed my husband… no one but Adityanath listened to me,’’ she said.

‘’Mere pai ke hatyare Ateeq Ahmed ko mukhyamantri ne mitti mein milane ka kaam kiya’’ (Ateeq Ahmed, who was the killer of my husband, was brought to the ground by the chief minister), she remarked.

Pooja Pal’s comments caused huge embarrassment to the SP, whose MLAs had been trying to corner Yogi Adityanath over what they alleged poor law and order situation in the state.

SP leader Mata Prasad Pandey had said that the BJP government has been acting against the criminals on the basis of their caste and religion.

In a letter to the speaker of the Assembly, SP president Akhilesh Yadav said that Pooja Pal’s comments constituted grave indiscipline and were against the party’s interests and that she was expelled from the party with immediate effect.

Pooja Pal was among the seven SP MLAs, who had voted for BJP candidate Sanjay Seth in last year’s Rajya Sabha polls.