By TwoCirceles.net Special Correspondent,
Lucknow: Is senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Rasheed Masood on his way to rejoin ruling Samajwadi Party (SP). The question is yet to get a direct answer but the political developments are giving such indications.
Rasheed Masood hails from Saharanpur and has been in SP, Rashtriya Lok Dal in the past. He is a former union minister and had also contested the Vice President election. He is regarded as a man of good hold in Saharanpur and adjoining districts. Just before the assembly elections, he had switched sides to Congress leaving SP. At that time he was Rajya Sabha MP from SP but he resigned and later Congress had renominated him to upper house. Not only this Congress also appointed him as Member of Congress Working Committee the apex body of the party.
Rasheed Masood
Mulayam Singh Yadav the head of SP has played his cards well. He had thrown the bait to Masood for giving Lok Sabha ticket from Saharanpur to his nephew Imran Masood. The trick had worked well and created ripples in the political scene in Western Uttar Pradesh.
Imran, who is a former MLA had contested on Congress ticket from Nakud seat in Sahranpur. Though he polled over 80000 votes, he lost the election. Infact, Congress had given ticket to all the candidates suggested by Rasheed Masood from Saharanpur. Only Pradeep Choudhary could win from Gangoh seat in Saharanpur. However the other candidates polled good votes due to Masood clout in Saharanpur.
The latest development is that Imran Masood has snapped his relationship with Congress. On Friday he held a public meeting of thousands of people and announced his decision. During the meeting several candidates of Congress in assembly elections were also present and gave their consent. Atleast four such candidates were present and one brother of a candidate was also present during the meeting. Salem Engineer who contested from Sahranpur Nagar, Abdul Wahid who contested from Saharanpur Dehat, Naresh Saini who contested from Muzaffarabad were present along with Imran Masood. One Kuldeep Tanwar who is brother of Anil Tanwar and contested from Deoband was also present. Pradeep Choudhary who is Congress MLA was however not present basically to avoid anti defection. Even Rasheed Masood was also not present but such a bold step by his nephew is not possible without his mute consent.
Political sources claimed that everything has been finalized and Mulayam’s brother Ramgopal Yadav has assured that Imran Masood will be fielded from Saharanpur. Till now SP has not declared its candidate from Saharanpur. The only opposition may come from Cabinet minister Azam Khan who is believed to be against the entry of Rasheed Masood in the party. The political script may change with the re-entry of Rasheed Masood in SP. Perhaps Mulayam does not want to leave anything to chance for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.