NEW DELHI, Dec 9
Hours after the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) suspended its Member of Parliament Danish Ali for indulging in anti-party activities, the legislator from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh junked the party’s claims, saying that the decision was unfortunate
“Her (BSP chief Mayawati) decision is unfortunate. I have never engaged in any kind of anti-party activities. The people of my Amroha are witness to this. I have opposed the anti-people policies of the BJP government and will continue to do so… If doing this is a crime, then I have committed this crime, and I am ready to face the punishment for it,” Danish Ali said on Saturday. In the suspension letter addressed to Ali, BSP national general secretary Satish Chandra Misra said, “Several times you were asked verbally to not act and make any statement against the policies, ideology and discipline of the party. But despite that, you are continuously acting against the party.”
In the letter, the BSP reminded Ali that he had been working as a member of H D Deve Gowda’s party until the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections and the BSP had given him a ticket in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls after Deve Gowda’s assurance that he (Ali) would always follow the policies and directions of the BSP and work in its interest. “You too had given that assurance and after that only you were made a member of the BSP, you were made to contest from Amroha and sent to Lok Sabha but you forgot your assurances and indulged in anti-party activities. Hence, in the interest of the party, you are now being suspended from BSP’s membership with immediate effect,” Misra said in the two-page letter to Ali.
The move comes a day after Ali walked out of Lok Sabha proceedings along with other Opposition members to protest against the government’s motion to expel TMC member Mahua Moitra for “unethical conduct”. Other BSP members, however, remained seated in the House. A Jamia Milia Islamia alumni, active in politics since student days and a vocal advocate of the causes he believes in, Danish Ali first made his name far from the national stage and even native Uttar Pradesh. During the 2017 Assembly elections in Karnataka, Ali’s name had surfaced as the main force and face behind a JD(S) and Congress post-poll alliance. Trusted by JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda, and general secretary of the party, Ali, just 42 at the time, was named the convenor of the five-member Coalition Coordination and Monitoring Committee the two parties set up, as they ran a short-lived JD(S)-Congress government.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Danish Ali stood on a BSP ticket from Amroha in UP, not very far from his native Hapur.
Despite it being his first electoral contest, and the BJP’s massive win from the state, Ali had won big from Amroha — a constituency dominated by Muslims, and housing a substantial number of Dalits. He had secured about 51% of the votes, defeating sitting BJP MP Kunwar Singh Tanwar by a margin of over 63,000. Since moving to the BSP, Ali had held his own.
In a party where Mayawati has the first and the last word, he is known to speak his mind on issues, whether at his constituency or in Delhi, and has quickly emerged as the minority face of the BSP in national politics.
For a while, Ali also headed the 10-member BSP Legislature Party in the Lok Sabha.
As per PRS Legislative Research data, Ali is an active parliamentarian, recording 98% attendance and participating in way more debates than the national average.
Recently, he was in news as one of the target of one of the most unseemly exchanges in Parliament. He had approached Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for action against BJP member Ramesh Bidhuri over remarks made by the latter regarding him, during the debate in the Lok Sabha on the Chandrayaan 3 mission. “The BJP MP was speaking in the House. During the speech, he said some people wanted Prime Minister Modi to die like a dog. I intervened and asked him what he was saying and that no one said that about the honourable Prime Minister. Then he called me names which included ‘terrorist’. I want to ask RSS chief Mohan Bhagwatji, what is taught in their shakhas? Is this what they learn in Prime Minister Modiji’s pathshala?” Ali had said.
