BJP blinks, cancels Sabir Ali’s membership

NEW DELHI: Bowing to dissenting voices within and wide criticism outside, BJP on Saturday annulled the membership of Sabir Ali, the former JD (U) MP who had joined the party on Friday with much fanfare.

After BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi publicly expressed his ire over Ali’s induction and RSS too voiced its disagreement, party president Rajnath Singh cancelled the membership of the controversial leader.

“The membership of Sabir Ali stands annulled,” deputy leader of the party in Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters. Faced with opposition from BJP and RSS, Ali had written a letter to party general secretary in-charge of Bihar Dharmendra Pradhan earlier on Saturday showing his unhappiness over the charges being levelled against him by various leaders from his new party.

“In the letter, Ali requested Pradhan that his membership should be suspended till the cloud of charges against him are cleared,” Prasad said, reading from the letter. There were protests within BJP and the Sangh fountainhead over the decision to give membership to Ali.

Leading the attack was BJP’s Muslim face Naqvi who tweeted on Saturday, “Terrorist Bhatkal friend joins BJP...soon accepting Dawood...” Naqvi alleged that Ali has some association with IM operative Yasin Bhatkal, now in police custody. RSS leader Ram Madhav and Sangh associate S Gurumurthy also spoke against Ali’s induction.