Other parties have approached me, says Saleem Iqbal Shervani after quitting SP post

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party leader Saleem Iqbal Shervani, who resigned as a general secretary of the party, on Tuesday said leaders from other parties have approached him but he is not going anywhere “as of now”.

The former Union minister and five-time Lok Sabha MP from Badaun quit his post-Sunday over the absence of a Muslim among his party’s three nominees for the Rajya Sabha polls, saying it was an insult to the community.

On Rahul Gandhi's “Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra”, Shervani told PTI that going by the photos and videos on social media, there was no doubt that the Congress leader is drawing people to him.

He also felt that the yatra could have an impact on the chances of the Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

But asked if he was planning to switch to the Congress -– a party he has been within the past -- the 70-year-old said, “As of now, I am not going to join any (other) political party. However, the leadership of some political parties are in touch with me.” He said he has not given up the primary membership of the SP and will talk to his supporters over the next two or three weeks. The SP leaders categorically said the BJP has not approached him.

Shervani said there is no representation of ‘P’ and ‘A’ in the SP’s nominations for the Rajya Sabha polls.

The reference was to party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s PDA slogan – an acronym for Pichda (the backward), Dalit and Alpsankhyak (minorities).

“There is no semblance of P and A as far as the SP's Rajya Sabha candidates are concerned. So, I feel that Muslims are feeling that we are only being used as a vote bank. And when the time comes for recognition, we are not recognised," he said in an interview to PTI.

The SP leader said some people told him that he was annoyed because Akhilesh Yadav didn’t give him the Rajya Sabha ticket.

“I told them that he did not give me a ticket even the last time for the Rajya Sabha polls. But he gave the ticket to Javed Ali Khan. I didn’t say a word,” Shervani said.

“Even this time, if they had given the ticket to one Muslim, I wouldn’t have said anything. But to completely ignore people, who have voted for you 80 per cent, in my views is very, very wrong and an insult to the community." He said he last met the SP chief shortly before the announcement of the Rajya Sabha polls and had told him to take the “PDA aspect” too into consideration. According to Shervani, Yadav told him that this was very much on his mind.

Shervani’s letter announcing his resignation from the party post too had mentioned the “neglect” of the Muslim community by the SP.

The SP has fielded Ramji Lal Suman, actor-politician Jaya Bachchan, and ex-UP chief secretary Alok Ranjan for the Rajya Sabha election from Uttar Pradesh.

Shervani expressed pessimism over the opposition INDIA bloc, of which the SP and the Congress too are members.

"The INDIA alliance is in tatters. Nobody is serious. They are busy fighting among themselves, rather than joining together and fighting the ruling party,” he said.

Nitish Kumar has walked away. Jayant Chaudhary has walked away. So, where is the INDIA alliance today? If you are not ready to give up seats in the larger interest, then what are you getting together for?" he said.

Shervani got elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1984 on a Congress ticket. After the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, he left Congress to join the SP and was a Lok Sabha MP from that party from 1996 to 2009.

When the SP denied him a ticket in 2009 to accommodate Mulayam Singh Yadav's nephew, Dharmendra Yadav, Shervani rejoined the Congress. In October 2020, he was back in the SP.

Another SP leader, Swami Prasad Maurya, on Tuesday resigned from the party's primary membership and the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.

A week earlier, he had quit as a general secretary in the party, accusing it of not defending him over his remarks.