BSP expels former MLA Imran Masood for alleged anti-party activities

Lucknow: The Bahujan Samaj Party on Tuesday said it has expelled its senior leader and former MLA Imran Masood, a prominent face for the party in western Uttar Pradesh, for alleged anti-party activities and indiscipline.

The party said in a statement Masood had been warned several times not to indulge in "anti-party activities and indiscipline" but it did not yield any result, following which he had to be expelled.

The former MLA had recently been in the news for praising Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Masood, an influential Muslim leader from Saharanpur district, also did not attend a meeting of the BSP leaders and office-bearers chaired by party chief Mayawati in Lucknow on August 23.

Just before the Assembly elections last year, Imran Masood, then in Congress, had joined the Samajwadi Party.

The BSP said in its release that when he had joined the party later, he was clearly told he would be given a Lok Sabha ticket from Saharanpur only after an assessment of his work.

"In the local body elections, when he pressured for a ticket from the Saharanpur mayor's post for a family member, it was given on the condition that the Saharanpur Lok Sabha ticket would be considered for him only if his family member won the mayor's seat, but the seat was lost," the release stated.

It further added that Masood also did not work towards adding new members to the party.

A nephew of former a Union minister, the late Raheed Masood, Imran Masood was elected MLA from Muzaffarabad seat (now Behat seat) in Saharanpur district in 2007 state elections.

He had also contested the Lok Sabha election on a Congress ticket in 2014 and 2019 from Saharanpur.