The Samajwadi Party, on Saturday, disowned senior leader Shahid Siddiqui and said that the latter was not member of the party.
The action comes after Mr Siddiqui interviewed Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi regarding his involvement in the Godhra riots for the Urdu weekly that he edits. Mr Modi had given his clarification on several issues, including the Godhra riots, in the interview.
Samajwadi Party general secretary and spokesman Ram Gopal Yadav issued a press statement on Saturday in which he clarified that Mr Shahid Siddiqui was not a part of the Samajwadi Party and the SP has no relations with him. He further appealed to the media to refrain from referring to Mr Siddiqui as a leader of the SP.
Prof. Ram Gopal Yadav said in the statement that Mr Siddiqui had defected to the BSP from the SP and contested 2009 Lok Sabha elections on its ticket. He had then joined the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and was never re-inducted in the SP. SP state spokesperson Rajendra Choudhury said that it was wrong on the part of Mr Siddiqui to appear in news channels and issue statements as a SP leader.
However, the fact remains that Mr Shahid Siddiqui had formally joined the Samajwadi Party in January this year in the presence of the party high command.
The SP leadership apparently believes that Mr Narendra Modi’s interview would affect party’s prospects in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and adversely affect the party’s base among Muslims.
The interview, they added, would also “spoil” SP’s relationship with the Congress. UP Congress state spokesperson Dujendra Tripathi, in fact, criticised Mr Shahid Siddiqui saying that the interview reminded one of how the SP had earlier joined hands with Mr Kalyan Singh who was responsible for demolition of Babri mosque in Ayodhya.