New Delhi:
The Bahujan Samaj Party has lost no time in expelling general secretary Shahid Siddiqui, who dared to speak against party chief Mayawati.
Daily newspaper The Indian Express quoted Siddiqui as saying that in party meetings, "Mayawatiji comes, speaks, goes, there's no discussion." The BSP expulsion came just a few hours after the newspaper had published Siddiqui's comments on Monday.
The party said in a press release that it was expelling Siddiqui for indulging in anti-party activities and that he had been warned a week ago to improve his way of working. It said Siddiqui's statements on party activities were baseless.
The party also blamed Siddiqui for the loss of the Bijnor seat in the Lok Sabha elections this year. Shahid Siddiqui had quit the SP to join the BSP just before the parliamentary elections and lost to RLD candidate Sanjay Singh Chauhan.
To the The Indian Express, Siddiqui also said; "Decisions are taken somewhere else. People like Bal Thackeray, Prakash Karat who have not been to Parliament, and those like Mayawati and Chandrababu Naidu who are not MPs themselves, control party MPs. They tell them what to say and what not to. Parliament is the chessboard on which the pawns are moved, but the hands moving them are elsewhere".