Rahul Gandhi-Danish Ali nexus behind Mayawati's boot?

New Delhi: In the letter to expel its Lok Sabha MP Danish Ali for anti-party activities, Bahujan Samaj Party highlighted his roots in the former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal (Secular).

The first time MP from Amroha on BSP ticket, Ali had joined BSP in 2018.

Ali was once a trusted aide of former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo HD Deve Gowda and his family. 

In the political corridors, Ali was known as a pointsman for JDS with great access to Deve Gowda. 

In fact, he was instrumental in the JD(S) stitching an alliance with the Congress to form a coalition government in Karnataka after the 2018 assembly elections threw a hung verdict.

Ali was a go-to person between the Gowda family and the Congress. He had been a Rajya Sabha aspirant for many years but the Gowdas repeatedly ignored him. 

Ali was hopeful that he will get a Rajya Sabha berth during the JD(S)-Congress rule. 

However, his hopes were dashed with the premature fall of the coalition government soon after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. 

Since Ali had played an important role in the JD(S)-BSP tie-up in 2018, Deve Gowda requested Mayawati to field him from the Amroha Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 elections to ensure his entry into Parliament.

Once elected, he was named the leader of the BSP in the Lok Sabha elections. But Mayawati soon removed Ali from the post after his refusal to toe the party line on the abrogation of Article 370 and the bill to bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories. Mayawati had supported the BJP government's moves. 

That virtually ended Ali's ties with Mayawati and the BSP and his continuation remained a mere formality. 

In the meantime, he started looking for other options.

Earlier this year in September, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi visited his residence to express solidarity after BJP Lok Sabha member Ramesh Bidhuri hurled communal slurs at him during a discussion on the Chandrayaan-3 mission in the Lower House of Parliament. 

Rahul Gandhi's impromptu visit had set off rumour mills suggesting that Congress, described by the Gandhi scion as 'nafrat ke bazar mein mohabbat ki dukaan', appears to be the next destination of Ali.