UP Urban Civic Polls: Congress candidate wants Bharat Ratna for Atiq, gets rewarded with expulsion

LUCKNOW: A Congress candidate for the upcoming Urban Civic polls put his party in for a major embarrassment when he demanded ‘Bharat Ratna’, the highest civilian award of the country for Atiq Ahmad in Prayagraj on Wednesday.

However, the party’s city unit expelled the person from the party with immediate effect.

One Rajkumar Rajju, a Congress candidate from Azad Square ward number 43, referred to Atiq as a “martyr” who should be accorded due respect and his body should have been wrapped in tricolour while performing his last rites.

Significantly, Atiq and his brother Ashraf were shot dead by three assailants from point-blank range while being taken for a medical check-up in a police security ring under the jurisdiction of Shahganj police station in Prayagraj on Saturday night. 

Rajkumar alias Rajju Bhaiya, who was set to contest upcoming local body polls in Prayagraj on a Congress ticket, was apprehended by the district police after his video clip eulogizing Atiq Ahmed went viral on social media.

Rajju even blamed CM Yogi Adityanath’s government for Atiq’s killing calling it murder and sought the resignation of CM Yogi over the issue.

Rajju even went a step ahead by substantiating his demand for ‘Bharat Ratna’ to Atiq, when he asked if former UP CM Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav could be conferred with ‘Padma Vibhushan’ (posthumously), why the gangster should not get the highest civilian award.

However, after expulsion from Congress for six years, Rajkumar’s dream to contest the polls went up in smoke. He had fought the local body elections in the past as well.