SP Expels MLA Pooja Pal After She Praises Yogi Adityanath’s Crackdown on Gangster Atiq Ahmed
By Tajdar H. Zaidi
Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Thursday expelled its sitting MLA Pooja Pal on charges of anti-party activities and indiscipline.
The drastic step came a day after Pal publicly lauded Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for his zero-tolerance policy against crime, crediting it with improving law and order in Uttar Pradesh and delivering justice in her husband’s murder case.
During the 24-hour marathon discussion on the “Vision Document 2047” in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Pooja Pal, widow of slain BSP legislator Raju Pal, directly credited Yogi Adityanath for dismantling the criminal empire of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed then had the open support of the Samajwadi Party.
“Everyone knows who murdered my husband. The Chief Minister heard me when no one else did. His zero-tolerance policy led to the killing of criminals like Atiq Ahmed. Today, the entire state looks at him with trust,” she said in the Assembly.
In a blunt statement, she added in Hindi: “Mere pati ke hatyare Atiq Ahmed ko Mukhya Mantri ne mitti mein milaane ka kaam kiya” (The Chief Minister buried my husband’s murderer, Atiq Ahmed).
Pooja Pal recalled the horrific events of January 2005 when her husband, newly elected BSP MLA Raju Pal, was assassinated in broad daylight in Prayagraj, barely days after their wedding. In a daring attack, heavily armed assailants led by Ashraf, the younger brother of Atiq Ahmed, ambushed Raju Pal’s convoy.
Even after Raju Pal, riddled with bullets, was being rushed towards the medical college, the attackers relentlessly chased the vehicle for nearly five kilometres, firing continuously in a brazen display of lawlessness that sent shockwaves across the city.
The daylight assassination not only exposed the deep nexus between politics and organised crime in the region but also sparked an outcry demanding strict action against the perpetrators. It marked the beginning of Pooja Pal’s long and relentless fight for justice.
BSP supremo Mayawati later brought Pooja Pal into politics to take forward her late husband’s political legacy.
Riding on a wave of public sympathy and determination to end the criminal influence in her constituency, she contested and won by a massive margin, emerging as a prominent voice against mafia-politician dominance.
Her political journey came full circle when she credited Yogi Adityanath for finally delivering justice by cracking down on Atiq Ahmed’s network.
In February 2023, Umesh Pal, a key witness in Raju Pal’s murder case, was also gunned down in a daylight attack in Prayagraj’s Sulem Saray area.
Soon after, Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf were arrested, but in a sensational twist, both were shot dead at close range by assailants posing as journalists while being taken for a medical check-up on April 15, 2023.
Despite her praise for the CM winning public appreciation, it has cost Pooja Pal her place in the Samajwadi Party ranks — a political fallout that underlines the volatile intersection of crime, politics, and personal loss in Uttar Pradesh.
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