After Modi interview, SP disowns Shahid Siddiqui

Lucknow - The Samajwadi Party on Saturday distanced itself from Shahid Siddiqui, saying he is no longer a part of the party two days after his interview with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi made waves.

“The party wants to clarify that Mr. Siddiqui had left SP long back and joined BSP on whose ticket he contested Lok Sabha election from Bijnor,” party spokesman Ram Gopal Yadav said in a statement.

He said that later Mr. Siddiqui joined the Rashtriya Lok Dal.

“Mr. Siddiqui is not a SP member and has nothing to do with the party,” Mr. Yadav said, asking the media not to project him as SP leader.

Mr. Yadav said terming Mr. Siddiqui as a SP leader was outrightly wrong.

Mr. Siddiqui, who is the editor of Urdu weekly Nai Duniya, had recently interviewed Mr. Modi, in which the Gujarat Chief Minister had refused to apologise for the post-Godhra riots and instead said he would prefer to be hanged if found guilty.

In an image makeover exercise, Mr. Modi had said in the interview, “If my government had done this (post-Godhra riots), I should be hanged in public in such a way that it remains a lesson for the next 100 years so that nobody dares to do it (such a crime).”