Babbar suspended from SP, to join Congress
by Pankaj Yadav

    New Delhi: The Samajwadi Party (SP) today suspended Lok Sabha MP from Agra, Raj Babbar, from the membership of the parliamentary party for indulging into anti-party activities. The SP also constituted a three-member committee under the chairmanship of Lok Sabha MP Mohan Singh to find out as to who were behind instigating Babbar's diatribe against the party. Mohan Singh is the SP's chief whip in Lok Sabha. A couple of days earlier, Babbar had held a press conference in the Capital and called the party's general secretary Amar Singh by different names. He had also alleged that the party was drifting away from its socialist ideology. Announcing Babbar's suspension from the SPP (Samajwadi Parliamentary Party), party's senior leader Professor Ram Gopal Yadav said that the party had informed the Lok Sabha Speaker about the decision, and also sent a letter in this regard to Raj Babbar. "Raj Babbar made no contribution to the Samajwadi Party. In the last UP Assembly polls, party contestants in all the five Assembly constituencies falling under Agra Parliamentary constituency had lost miserably. The party first brought him in the Rajya Sabha, and then fielded him twice from Agra. He had no political standing before joining the SP," said a visibly upset Prof Yadav, who is the brother of party supremo and UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav. Refuting Babbar's claim that he had managed to win the Agra Lok Sabha seat (for SP) which was traditionally the BJP bastion, Professor Yadav said that it was actually the party who launched the film-star into politics and gave him ample opportunities from the party's platform.

    On the other hand, the film-star-turned-politician is likely to join the Congress. This evening he is expected to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi along with Congress' UP unit chief Salman Khurshid. The Samajwadi Party has been in power in the state for the past two years, following the one-and-a-half year of President's Rule (the 2004 Assembly polls had resulted in a hung Assembly). Ahead of the next Assembly polls, slated to take place early next year, the party is facing a tough time as the Congress is trying hard to recollect its lost traditional vote bank in the state. Also, another regional party in the state - the BSP - is also leaving no stone unturned to once again capture power it lost in the last elections. With nearly one year left for the next Assembly polls in the state, the political temperature is likely to go up and many political shifts, alliances and re-arrangements are round the corner.

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