Hours after she heaped praises on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for “keeping his word and reducing mafia like Atiq Ahmed to dust”, Chail MLA Pooja Pal was sacked by the Samajwadi Party for “anti-party activities and serious indiscipline”.
“You have carried out anti-party activities and, even after being warned, you did not stop these activities, due to which the party has suffered a lot. The work done by you is anti-party and a serious act of indiscipline. Hence, you are expelled from Samajwadi Party with immediate effect,” the expulsion letter, handed to Pal on the Assembly premises, read.
SP sources said that while the action against her may have followed her remarks praising Adityanath, Pal had been “sulking” for a while and even met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the Maha Kumbh Mela earlier this year. “She is believed to have also extended support to the BJP candidate in the Phulpur Assembly bypoll last year, which the SP lost,” a source said.
Another SP MLA expressed “no surprise” at her remarks.
Speaking on the floor of the Assembly, during its marathon 24-hour sitting over Wednesday and Thursday, Pal said: “I lost my husband, who was a member of this House. The entire House knows how my husband was killed and who killed him. I want to thank the CM, who saw my silent tears, which were overlooked by others for ages. He delivered justice to me in a true manner.”
In 2023, Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were shot dead while on their way to a medical check-up under police custody, outside a hospital in Prayagraj.
Pal was married to Raju Pal, a former BSP MLA who was killed in a 2005 shootout in Prayagraj, in which Ahmed and Ashraf were accused. Two years later, she made her electoral debut from Allahabad West seat as a BSP candidate and won. She retained the seat five years later, but lost the 2017 election. Ahead of the 2022 polls, she joined the SP, which fielded her from the Chail seat in Kaushambi district.
Reacting to her expulsion, Pal said she “genuinely wanted to thank the CM” and claimed her only fault was to mention Ahmed’s name. “The SP needs to choose between the families of those killed in Prayagraj and those killed in encounters,” she said.
“I was married for just nine days when my husband was killed. I just wanted to thank Adityanath for ensuring justice for me 18 years later. The journey was not easy as I knew nothing about the police, FIR, etc,” she added.
Saying that she got associated with the SP as she aligned with the “anti-mafia” thought processes of its chief Akhilesh Yadav, Pal said she was disappointed by the party’s “double standards”. “When my husband was murdered, they slammed the BSP saying law and order under its regime was poor. But now they are feeling pain when Adityanath has walked the talk on tackling the mafia.”
