‘I might get killed like my husband’, says Pooja Pal in letter to Akhilesh | Lucknow News
Prayagraj: Fearing threat to her life from ‘Samajwadi Party’s criminal-minded functionaries’ after being expelled from the party, Chail MLA Pooja Pal said on Friday that if anything happened to her SP and Akhilesh Yadav should be held responsible.In a strongly worded letter to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, which she uploaded on X, Pal claimed that she has been getting death threats from party cadres and expressed fear that she might be shot dead like her husband in public.“You have humiliated and left me in the lurch. This has embolended the criminal-minded functionaries of SP. It’s possible that I might get killed. I appeal to the govt that if it happens, Samajwadi Party and Akhilesh Yadav should be held responsible,” she says in the letter.Pal was expelled from the party on Aug 14 for “breach of discipline” after she praised Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s law and order policy during the monsoon session of the UP Assembly. She had also voted in favour of BJP candidates in the 2024 Rajya Sabha elections.A three-time MLA and widow of BSP MLA Raju Pal, Pooja accused the SP leadership of abandoning and humiliating her, despite her long struggle for justice after her husband Raju Pal’s murder in 2005.In her letter, Pooja recalled she had joined SP with the hope that under Akhilesh Yadav’s leadership, the party would support her fight against powerful criminals. However, over time, she felt disillusioned by what she called the party’s caste-based favouritism and soft stance toward the mafia.Pooja claimed enduring years of suffering in the party but the final blow was her expulsion without allowing her to present her case. “It felt like another act of injustice,” she wrote. “A widow from an extremely backward caste is punished for thanking the person who ensured justice for her husband. But when you or your wife vote for BJP candidates in the Constitution Club elections, it is justified,” she added.She alleged that her act of gratitude towards Yogi Adityanath — who heard her cries of justice — was used as a pretext to remove her from the party.Pooja’s husband Raju Pal was gunned down in Jan 2005 in Prayagraj allegedly at the behest of mafia don Atiq Ahmed.She ended her letter expressing her faith in the people of Uttar Pradesh, particularly the backward Pal community, to support her continued political fight. “I have achieved my goal, my husband’s murderers have been punished. Even if I die now, I will die with pride,” she writesThe Samajwadi Party had not officially responded to the letter till the filing of the report.
