Rasheed vs Imran Masood: A family at war, whose writ runs large in Saharanpur

LUCKNOW: Muslim politics in parts of western UP, especially in and around Saharanpur, is influenced to a large extent by the Masood family.

While it was Rasheed Masood, a former union minister, who laid the ground for the family’s control in the area, it is his young nephew, Imran Masood, who now holds sway. All was well between Rasheed Masood and Imran until a few years ago.

But the growing ambition of Imran and Rasheed’s desire to push his son Shadaan into politics saw both growing apart. Rasheed was the minister of health and family welfare in the VP Singh government and he was long associated with the Lok Dal and the Janata Party.

Meanwhile, his nephew launched his political career by winning as an independent MLA in the 2007 assembly polls from the Nakur seat in Saharanpur. Rasheed, who with his son Shadaan, eventually joined the Samajwadi Party and unsuccessfully contested the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Saharanpur and Kairana. Rasheed became a Rajya Sabha MP thanks to support from Mulayam Singh Yadav.

However, Rasheed quit the SP on the eve of the 2012 assembly polls, and joined the Congress. But Imran remained with the SP and was given the ticket to contest the Saharanpur Lok Sabha seat almost a year ago. The uncle’s luck was turning rotten in the meantime. Rasheed was convicted of a medical entrance scam and was arrested.

He had manipulated the admission of a few individuals into medical colleges while being the central minister for health. One of the beneficiaries happened to be Imran’s younger brother who went on to become a doctor.

Rasheed has the dubious distinction of becoming the first parliamentarian to be found guilty in a criminal case after the Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers stand immediately disqualified if they are convicted for offences that carry a sentence of more than two years.