The Samajwadi Party suffered a major blow on Sunday, February 18, after one of its senior leader and general secretary Saleem Sherwani resigned from the party. This happened after the announcement of Rajya Sabha candidates for the upcoming Upper House elections.
Speaking to ANI, Sherwani said that the party is not abiding by its motto – secularism. “I thought that the topic, the issue on which we are fighting elections, our party is not at all following that motto, so why should we remain in the party,” he said.
“This (my separation from the party) did not happen today. This happened when the member’s name for the Rajya Sabha election was announced,” he added.
Five-time Congress MP from Badaun, Sherwani is a former Union minister of state for health and family welfare and has had a short stint as minister of state for external affairs (1997-1998).
He left the Congress party in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition and joined the Samajwadi Party. He, however, left SP and went back to Congress in 2009, when he was allegedly denied a ticket from Badaun to accommodate Yadav clan member Dharmendra Yadav from the seat.
Secularism a vanity?
Sherwani, in his resignation letter to party chief Akhilesh Yadav pointed out how the main Opposition party in Uttar Pradesh is donning a mask of secularism when there is consistent neglect of its Muslim leaders.
He also took a swipe at INDIA bloc (The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance), formed to take on the BJP-led Centre in the upcoming general elections. “No one is serious about the alliance. The motive with which the INDIA alliance was formed is not being fulfilled,” he said.
His departure from SP raises questions on minority representation in various political parties who boasts of equal representation and inclusivity.
Muslims feeling neglected
The Samajwadi Party has been under fire from its Muslim leaders ever since it announced its three Rajya Sabha candidates names – former MP Ram Ji Lal Suman, retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Alok Ranjan, and Bollywood actor Jaya Bachchan.
On February 16, president of the All India Muslim Jamaat, Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi, questioned the party over this, adding that the community deserved two seats for consistently supporting the principal Opposition party in Uttar Pradesh.
Calling the party as ‘anti Muslim’, Rizvi, in his letter reminded party chief Akhilesh Yadav that it was the Muslim votes that helped SP MLAs win seats in the last Assembly elections.
“You are fully aware that 98% Muslims voted for the SP in the 2022 Assembly elections, helping its MLAs to win many seats in an election where many communities, including your own, drifted towards the BJP. Despite it, you chose not to nominate even a single Muslim out of three seats in the Rajya Sabha, while the community deserved two seats. I am pained with this anti-Muslim attitude of yours,” he wrote in the letter.
