Former Bahujan Samaj Party leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui on Thursday said claimed that he and his son Afzal were expelled from the party on Wednesday based on false allegations. “There will be an earthquake if I expose [party chief] Mayawati and BSP’s secrets,” he said at a press conference.
The expelled BSP leader also alleged that Mayawati had demanded Rs 50 crore from him and that he had known he would be “thrown out of the party” one day. To support his claim, he played six audio clip of his phone conversations with Mayawati and said he had 150 such records, according to PTI.
“The charges were deliberately framed against me and my son. I will expose it all to you,” he said, according to India Today. “I have so much material [against Mayawati] that if I open my mouth, it can cause an earthquake...If I present proof against Mayawati, [her brother] Anand and [BSP General Secretary Satish Chandra] Mishra, it will be a big tamasha (drama),” he said.
The senior politician, who was often described as the Muslim face of the BSP, also accused Mayawati of labelling Muslims as “betrayers” after the BSP’s abysmal loss in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in February-March. “After the elections in UP, Mayawati called me to Delhi and asked me why Muslims did not vote for BSP,” Siddiqui said.
Responding to Siddiqui’s claims, Mayawati said the tapes proved that he untrustworthy. “If he can record the party president’s call and tamper it as per his convenience, how can he be expected to fulfil responsibilities?”
The BSP had expelled the senior MLA and his son for alleged “anti-party” activities. The party’s General Secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, had also claimed that Siddiqui took bribes from people, ran illegal slaughterhouses and owned several undeclared properties.
Mayawati had removed Siddiqui as the head of the Uttar Pradesh unit in April. But he was later made in charge of the party’s affairs in Madhya Pradesh.
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