Munquad Ali is new State BSP president

Making key changes to its organisation, the Bahujan Samaj Party on Wednesday appointed former Rajya Sabha MP Munquad Ali as the president of its Uttar Pradesh unit, while also replacing its floor leader in the Lok Sabha Kunwar Danish Ali.

Shyam Singh Yadav, the first-time MP from Jaunpur, is the new leader of the party in the Lok Sabha, where it has 10 members. Ritesh Pandey, the MP from Ambedkar Nagar, was nominated the BSP's deputy leader in the Lower House.

While Mr. Yadav is an OBC — the BSP highlighted his “pichda varg” (backward credentials) in its press statement — Mr. Danish Ali, MP from Amroha in western U.P., is Muslim.

Sources said that the Amroha MP’s objections to the triple talaq Bill and the government's Kashmir measures were the main reasons for his removal.

He had, the sources said, consistently refused to toe a pro-government line that BSP chief Mayawati wished to follow and refused point-blank to speak on the debate on Article 370 if it meant supporting the government’s line.

While the party replaced its Muslim leader in Lok Sabha with an OBC, in U.P. it did the reverse, perhaps to balance the caste-community calculus. Muslims make up 19% of the State population while OBCs are estimated to be over 40%.

Mr. Munquad Ali replaces R.S. Kushwaha as the head of the BSP's State unit.