By IANS
Lucknow : In an obvious bid to change his party’s image, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav Friday said he had expelled tainted party MP Atiq Ahmad, wanted by the police for the murder of a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator.
Yadav revealed this to reporters during an informal visit to a party colleague’s residence at Faizabad, about 120 km from here, Friday afternoon.
“Atiq Ahmad has a criminal background, and we have no place for tainted and anti-social elements like him in our party,” he said.
He, however, declined to comment when a reporter wanted to know why had he been patronising Ahmad so far, when his criminal background was an open secret.
According to police records in Allahabad, Ahmad is a “history-sheeter” facing dozens of criminal charges, including murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, extortion, and rioting.
In reply to another question, the former chief minister admitted, “My partymen had also given me some information about Atiq’s involvement in anti-party activities as well.”
Ahmad and his brother Azeem Ashraf were charged in the murder of BSP legislator Raju Pal, who was gunned down in a sensational broad daylight shooting in Allahabad in January 2005.
Atiq had initially surrendered before a local court which remanded him to a brief custody after which he was bailed out. However, he has been missing since then and the police have failed to arrest him so far.