Meerut MLA suspended for remarks on Sikhs

Chief Minister Mayawati,who is also national president of her party,has issued instructions not to allow Qureshi at any party programme.

But sources said the action came because of his brother Yusuf Qureshi’s decision to join the Congress.

The Congress has already given a ticket to Yusuf for contesting the 2012 Assembly polls from Meerut city.

“The party was not ready to see the two brothers —Yaqub and Yusuf — as candidates of BSP and Congress,respectively,in the same Meerut district. It could have sent a wrong impression to its core voters and the action against Yaqub was inevitable,” a source in the BSP said.

The sources said the BSP was planning to field Yaqub from the Meerut South Assembly seat.

A BSP statement said Yaqub violated party discipline by making objectionable statements about the Sikh community. The party said the BSP respects all religions and never tolerates indiscipline.

The party said Yaqub has a habit of making controversial statements.

Yaqub was elected to the state Assembly from Meerut city from the United Democratic Front (UDF),a political party his brother Yusuf had floated in the 2007 Assembly elections. The UDF later merged with the BSP.