E-Paper
U.P.: Ex-MP Atiq Ahmad’s wife joins BSP, to contest for Prayagraj mayor’s post
Party leaders present on the occasion also announced that Shaista Parveen will be party’s candidate for the post of Prayagraj mayor in the upcoming local bodies polls
Shaista Parveen, the wife Mafioso–turned-politician and former Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Phulpur seat Atiq Ahmad, joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the presence of senior party leaders in Prayagraj on Thursday.
She formally took the BSP membership at party’s divisional level meeting held at Sardar Patel Sansthan, Alopibagh here. Party leaders present on the occasion also announced that she will be party’s candidate for the post of Prayagraj mayor in the upcoming local bodies polls in Uttar Pradesh.
Praising the discipline among BSP cadres, Parveen said she too will learn it soon. “My husband’s proximity with the Samajwadi Party (SP) never gave us opportunity to learn such discipline. However, now we will follow the guidelines of the party and will take advice from senior leaders from time to time. My husband has always respected dalits and wanted to join the BSP but some leaders in the BSP kept him at bay,” Shaista Parveen claimed.
She also slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the alleged harassment of her family and supporters. “My husband Atiq Ahmad, brother-in-law Ashraf and my two sons and around 250 supporters are in jail and our homes have been illegally demolished. Our 13 bank accounts have been seized and we are going through financial crisis,” she alleged citing the crackdown on her family since the BJP came to power in state in 2017.
Attacking the SP, she said Muslims were now fed up of it while claiming that a large number of them will join the BSP. “My family and I are now dedicated to the cause of the party. I will fight for the post of mayor and if I win, I will always stand for the cause and respect of dalits. My five sons are always ready to fight those who are oppressing and harassing them,” she said.
Speaking as the chief guest in the meeting, senior BSP leader and former MP Ghanshyam Chandra Kharwar listed the achievements of the BSP regime. He alleged that Muslims, dalits, backwards were being harassed under the present government and that members of particular communities were being targeted.
Another senior BSP leader Amrendra Bahadur Bhartiya said people of all communities should now come forward to change the present regime. Party leader Raju Gautam said the outcome of BJP’s policies was now visible clearly and voters had decided to dislodge it.
The move by Shaista Parveen of joining BSP is being viewed as a desperate effort of Atiq and his family to regain political clout that has been on the wane since 2017. In 2017, Atiq was all set to contest the polls from Kanpur Cantonment seat as a Samajwadi Party candidate before being denied a ticket while in 2022 UP assembly polls his wife Shaista Parveen, who was to file her papers as All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM), candidate from Allahabad west seat of Prayagraj, had backed out at the last moment.
Before 2017, Atiq or one of his family members had been contesting the polls without a gap for the past around three decades. At present lodged in Ahmedabad jail, Atiq has been a five-time MLA from Allahabad West, including thrice as an independent candidate in 1989, 1991 and 1993, besides once as SP and Apna Dal candidate in 1996 and 2002 respectively.
However, when he became an MP from Phulpur in 2004, he had vacated the seat and had fielded his brother Khalid Azim who, however, had lost to BSP’s Raju Pal in 2004 by-polls. Following the murder of Raju Pal, in which both Atiq and his brother are the main accused, the 2005 by-polls saw Atiq’s brother Khalid as SP candidate beating Raju’s widow Pooja Pal of BSP and emerging victorious.
In 2007 assembly elections, however, Pooja Pal as a BSP candidate had defeated Khalid in the fray on an SP ticket and then again retained the seat in 2012, this time defeating Atiq who had contested on the Apna Dal ticket.
Some months before the 2022 UP assembly polls Atiq’s wife had declared joining the AIMIM and at the time AIMIM leaders had said Atiq and his kin may contest from as many as five assembly seats but this never materialised.
Presently, Atiq’s two sons Umar and Ali are both in prison in connection with different cases and younger brother Ashraf is also in Bareilly jail. Atiq was arrested in connection with the attack on Prayagraj-based Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHUATS) employees in Prayagraj in 2017 and since then the Samajwadi Party had distanced itself from him.
