UP BJP goes slow on inducting expelled SP Puja Pal in party, blue-coloured hoarding of Puja in Prayagraj creates suspense

The ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh has gone slow on inducting expelled Samajwadi Party MLA Puja Pal into the party-fold. According to sources, Puja Pal has met many BJP leaders in Delhi within the last two days.

There were discussions within the BJP leadership that Ms Pal could be given the responsibility of wooing the most backward Pal community in the BJP, and that she be given a post in the organisation.

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The BJP will try to woo all backward castes, including the Pal community, by fielding her in the assembly elections of 2027 and presenting her as a ”backward victim woman of the Samajwadi Party”.

A senior party leader here on Sunday said that in the Lok Sabha elections 2024, despite the support of caste parties like Apna Dal (S), SBSP, Nishad Party, the opposition was successful in making a dent in the backward castes including Kurmi, Pal, Maurya, which are considered to be the core vote bank of BJP.

“The BJP is working on a strategy to woo backward and Dalits to counter the political attack of the opposition. Puja Pal is one of the strategies,” the leader said.

According to sources, Puja Pal has met many BJP leaders in Delhi within the last two days. They said she could also be included in the BJP on the lines of Swati Singh.

In 2016, when Swati Singh showed her aggression on the statement of former BSP leader, now in Congress, Naseemuddin Siddiqui, in response to Dayashankar Singh’s comment against Mayawati, the BJP first made her the President of the State Women’s Front, then an MLA, and later a Minister.

Meanwhile, a report from Prayagraj said hoardings of MLA Pooja Pal were placed at different places in the city. These hoardings were erected in the Dadhikando fair being held in Prayagraj.

These blue colour hoardings of Pooja Pal have been put up at many places, including Sulem Sarai of Dhoomanganj. The hoarding also has a picture of the Constitution maker, Dr Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar. Pooja Pal has been a BSP MLA from the city’s western assembly seat in 2007 and 2012.

Political meanings are also being drawn from the blue coloured hoardings. Sources of the political party say that this is a sign of Pooja Pal’s inclination towards the BSP again. The Bahujan Samaj Party uses blue as its official color.

However, in the monsoon session, MLA Pooja Pal had praised CM Yogi Adityanath’s law and order. She had said that she got justice only under the leadership of CM Adityanath. Angered by this, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav expelled her from the party, accusing her of indiscipline.

Puja Pal had joined the Samajwadi Party in 2019, after which she contested the 2022 assembly elections from the Chail assembly seat in Kaushambi on the SP ticket.

She had cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha elections, and since then, her distance from the Samajwadi Party has started increasing.

Pal had met CM Yogi Adityanath and Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya several times. In the Lok Sabha elections too, she was indirectly accused of campaigning in favour of the BJP candidate.