22 days after he resigned from the UP Congress stating that he was being given no work, Naseemuddin Siddiqui who once enjoyed the ‘number 2’ position in the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has confirmed that he is set to join the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party on Sunday. Siddiqui holds a considerable support base in the western UP region.
While Siddiqui had been holding talks with the Azad Samaj Party-Kanshi Ram and the UP Congress leadership had also attempted to woo him back in the party, he chose to join ranks with the Samajwadi Party.
Siddiqui will join the SP along with thousands of his supporters in the presence of party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday.
While Siddiqui switch from Congress to SP has led to an unease within the two parties which are in an alliance in UP, Siddiqui said that this was not for him to talk about.
Speaking to The Daily Guardian, Siddiqui said that it was upto the leadership of the parties to talk about the same.
“The leadership of the parties have to think about it. I have not spoken against the Congress leadership or the leaders. I have always spoken about their respect. So, this question (of unease within the parties) does not arise,” he said.
Asked why it took 22 days for him to make his decision public, Siddiqui said that it had taken him only nine days which was a much shorter time period than when he switched from BSP to Congress.
Sources in SP said that Siddiqui’s induction in the party was finalised as party chief Akhilesh Yadav and senior leader Shivpal Yadav conferred that his inclusion could help the SP again widespread support ahead of the 2027 assembly polls.
The decision of the SP to induct Siddiqui also shows that the Congress and the SP are wooing the same vote bank in UP when it comes to the minorities.
Sources said that while Siddiqui had put out feelers to the BSP, the BSP chief Mayawati is of firm belief that the party’s doors are shut for Siddiqui given the acrimonious exit that he had had from the BSP way back in 2017.
Siddiqui who had been expelled from the BSP in 2017 had joined the Congress in 2018 along with his supporters.
After being expelled, Siddiqui had played six audio recordings of his purported phone conversations with Mayawati alleging that Rs 50 crore had been demanded from him and had also claimed that he was in possession of six such recordings and had enough material to cause “an earthquake.”
Siddiqui had also commented that time that Mayawati had referred to “bearded Muslims as dogs.”
This was followed by Mayawati addressing a hurried press conference and saying that expelled Siddiqui was a big blackmailer and earned money from the same.
She had hit back saying that she had received complaints from party workers about Siddiqui demanding money from them.
Insiders say that taping Mayawati’s conversations meant that there was no chance that Siddiqui could return to the BSP, the SP is considered as a bigger political platform for Siddiqui.
Siddiqui had joined the Congress in 2018 along with scores of his supporters.
His exit from the Congress on January 24 followed the leader seemingly upset over little decision-making role in the organisation in the UP. The UP Congress chief Ajay Rai had tried to convince Siddiqui to revoke his decision, holding conversations with him at length but Siddiqui had put his foot down.
