An SP MLA in BJP’s core team for UP? Who is Pooja Pal

June 28, 2026 Headlinesnews

Lucknow: When the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced an organisational reshuffle in Uttar Pradesh, one name in particular was in the spotlight: rebel Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Pooja Pal, who was appointed one of the party’s 19 state vice-presidents.

Pal’s appointment is significant because she has been directly inducted into the BJP’s core team even though she’s still officially listed as an SP MLA from the Chail assembly constituency in Kaushambi district.

According to Uttar Pradesh BJP sources, Pal was also among the names considered for induction into Yogi Adityanath’s cabinet during an expansion. After she didn’t make it, the party leadership decided to reward her by making her a state vice-president in the organisation.

The induction of the 46-year-old Pal into the BJP organisation also signals the party’s intent to actively focus on the non-Yadav OBC Pals and Lodhs, ahead of Assembly elections due next year.

Pooja Pal’s relationship with the Samajwadi Party had been deteriorating since the 2024 Rajya Sabha elections. In February 2024, she was among seven SP MLAs who cross-voted in favour of BJP candidate Sanjay Seth, defying the party whip.

According to SP leaders, she campaigned for BJP candidates during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and continued engaging in activities viewed as being against party interests.

Despite repeated complaints, the SP initially refrained from taking action against her. However, in August last year, the SP finally expelled her for “anti-party activities”.

Also read: Amit Shah close aide, Rajnath’s younger son get key roles in BJP’s new UP team ahead of 2027 polls

A murder changed her life

From a poor OBC family in the Katghar area of Prayagraj district, Pooja had never imagined she would enter politics. Daughter of a puncture repair shop owner, she did odd jobs while studying and finally managed to graduate from Allahabad University. She even worked as a sweeper in offices and in a hospital to make ends meet.

It was while working at the hospital that she met Raju Pal, then a local businessman in Prayagraj West. The two got married.

Pooja Pal’s political career has been closely linked to one of Uttar Pradesh’s most high-profile political murder cases.

Her husband, former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Raju Pal, was shot dead in January 2005, just 10 days after their marriage. The murder sparked widespread outrage, with gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother, Ashraf, later accused in the case.

Raju Pal won the Allahabad West Assembly by-election in 2004 after defeating Ashraf, who contested after Atiq vacated the seat following his election to the Lok Sabha.

Following Raju Pal’s murder, the Bahujan Samaj Party BSP fielded Pooja Pal in the by-election against Ashraf Ahmed, but she lost. She contested again in 2007 and eventually won the Allahabad West Assembly seat in 2012, establishing herself as an independent political figure.

In 2018, BSP chief Mayawati expelled her after she met BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Maurya without the party’s approval. Earlier, she also skipped some internal BSP meetings. A year later, she joined the Samajwadi Party ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

According to BSP functionaries, party chief Mayawati played a key role in Pooja Pal’s political rise. She was fielded by the BSP three times and emerged as one of the party’s prominent faces in Prayagraj.

However, as the BSP’s electoral fortunes declined, Pal began exploring other political options.

She initially attempted to join the BJP in 2017 but eventually switched to the Samajwadi Party ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

“I was never against Behanji. They took action against me; I didn’t resign from there. I was disillusioned with the BSP’s situation and its continuous decline. Later, I joined the Samajwadi Party because I believed Akhilesh ji was different from Mulayam Singh Yadav and Shivpal Yadav, and would not support mafia elements,” Pal told ThePrint.

“But later, I felt the SP had a soft corner for mafias, even as Yogi ji was taking continuous action against them over the last four to five years. That’s when I realised I should be with the side that is strict against the mafia.”

Turning points

She remarried Brajesh Verma from Hardoi before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. But no details are known.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the SP initially fielded her from the Unnao parliamentary constituency, but she withdrew her candidature because of incomplete nomination-related documents.

In the 2022 Assembly elections, the SP gave her a ticket from Chail in Kaushambi district, from where she won and entered the Assembly.

Another turning point came in February 2023 when Umesh Pal, a key witness in Raju Pal’s murder case, was shot dead in Prayagraj.

The incident led to a massive police crackdown. Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf Ahmed were arrested later and shot dead by three assailants posing as journalists while being taken for a medical examination in April 2023.

Pooja welcomed the development. Then, in the 2024 Rajya Sabha polls, she cross-voted for the BJP candidate, Sanjay Seth.

In 2025, during her speech in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, she praised Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s law-and-order policies. Referring to the murder of her husband, former BSP MLA Raju Pal, she thanked the chief minister for ensuring justice in the case.

“Everyone knows who murdered my husband. I want to thank the chief minister for bringing me justice when no one else did. His zero-tolerance policy led to the elimination of criminals like Atiq Ahmed. Today, the entire state trusts the chief minister,” she had said during the Assembly session.

She also said that Yogi Adityanath had “buried my husband’s killer, Atiq Ahmed”, and said the government’s action against organised crime had restored her faith after years of waiting for justice.

While the SP expelled three rebel MLAs – Abhay Singh, Rakesh Pratap Singh and Manoj Pandey – earlier in 2025 for cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha elections, no action was taken against Pooja Pal.

Party leaders had then maintained that she deserved another opportunity because of her importance to the PDA outreach strategy. But she was expelled later, which gave the BJP a chance to bring her into their fold.

Now her appointment as a BJP state vice-president has effectively ended any remaining doubts over her political alignment. And it has given the BJP a prominent non-Yadav OBC face ahead of next year’s election.

(Edited by Sugita Katyal)

Also read: FIR registered in Ayodhya’s Ram Temple donation row

Please follow and like us: