SP leader seeks RS nomination for Memon's widow, sacked

Samajwadi Party leader M.F. Ghosi demanded that Raheen, the widow of hanged terrorist Yakub Memon, be nominated to the Rajya Sabha - leading to his being sacked as the Mumbai unit's vice president.

A Samajwadi Party spokesperson said state and city unit chief Abu Asim Azmi took the decision barely a day after Ghosi made the demand in a letter to party president Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Earlier, Azmi had sought an explanation from Ghosi for his controversial demand.

Ghosi said it was his personal view and intended to make the SP think on these lines since Raheen had been declared innocent in the March 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and had suffered a lot in the past.

The demand came on Friday a day after Memon, 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict, was hanged in Nagpur Central Jail.

In the letter, Ghosi described Raheen as a "helpless woman" who had suffered a lot in prision.

"She is like many such Muslims in the country and we have to fight for them... We should make Raheen a Rajya Sabha MP and make her the voice of the weak and helpless people," Ghosi said in his letter to Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Ghosi's demand was being viewed in some quarters as an attempt to checkmate the growing influence of the Hyderabad-based All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen among Muslims in the city and other parts of Maharashtra.