Big shock to Owaisi's AIMIM in UP, Atiq Ahmed's wife will join BSP today

Shaista Parveen, wife of former MP and mafia don Atiq Ahmed, will leave Asaduddin Owaisi's party AIMIM and join the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Thursday. It is expected that Shaista Parveen will contest for the post of Mayor in the upcoming Municipal Corporation elections on BSP ticket. Party sources claimed that some other members of Atiq's family are also expected to take primary membership of the BSP.

Confirming the move, Shaista Parveen said that she is joining the BSP after consulting her husband, who is lodged in Gujarat's Sabarmati Jail. "I have also spoken to former chief minister and BSP chief Mayawati and will meet her on January 15 after joining the party," she said.

The BSP has organized a circle meeting of its workers on Thursday at the Sardar Patel Institute in Alopi Bagh, Prayagraj, in which senior leaders of the party will participate. A senior BSP leader said Atiq's wife Shaista Parveen would be given party membership in the meeting and she could also be declared the party's candidate for the post of mayor.

Significantly, after leaving the Samajwadi Party, Atiq's family had joined the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and Shaista Parveen and her son Ali had also attended public meetings of party chief Asaduddin Owaisi in Prayagraj. Shaista Parveen was expected to contest the state assembly elections on an AIMIM ticket, but later changed her mind.