RLD's minority wing in UP dissolved after room dispute

Lucknow: In a seemingly bizarre political development, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) dissolved its minority wing after a row erupted over the allotment of a room to the minority wing in its Lucknow state headquarters.

RLD’s national president (minority cell) Khalid Masood announced on the X account that, “Minority wing and its executive has been dissolved with immediate effect.”

Though Masood did not give the reason or any further details, a letter written by Arif Mehmood, RLD state president (minority wing), to the party functionaries said it all.

“The act of snatching the room allotted to the minority wing in the party office reeked of a conspiracy to dissuade the Muslims who have been supporting the party for quite some time,” he said in the letter.

Mehmood accused “some party leaders” of conspiring to dent the RLD’s prospects.

“The minority cell and Muslim community are not going to remain silent and such people will be exposed at all costs,” he said.

According to sources, it all started a fortnight ago when RLD state general secretary Ajit Rathi along with office in-charge Ajay Tomar ordered removal of Mehmood’s name plate from one of the rooms at the state party office. The room was primarily meant for minority wing functionaries to meet and discuss future strategies.

Significantly, both Rathi and Tomar happen to be key organisational functionaries in Uttar Pradesh and report directly to party national general secretary (organisation) Trilok Tyagi.

The development triggered a spate of resignations by a host of minority leaders, including Naushad Khan and Shabbir Ali, minority wing presidents of the Kashi and Bundelkhand regions, respectively.

Both Khan and Ali, in their letters sent to RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary, said that the act of “snatching” a room at the party office was nothing short of “humiliation” for the party workers from the minority community.

The development, experts said, exposed the underlying fissures within the outfit, which is one of the key constituents of the opposition bloc INDIA.

Sources said that the Jat leadership within the RLD exercised its dominance even as the Muslim leadership sought to gain an additional space within the party.

As a matter of fact, Jayant has been consistently making efforts to consolidate Muslims in west Uttar Pradesh.