The Congress, for which Atiq had defied the Samajwadi Party whip during the Presidential election in 2007, has rejected him. He earned the party’s ire after he went with the BSP in the voting against the UPA government during the 2008 trust vote.

“He (Atiq) was never in the Congress and he is not in the party at present. It is basically a matter between the Samajwadi Party and the BSP. The Congress has nothing to do with it,” said CLP leader Pramod Tiwari.

The SP expelled him just after he was sent to jail in 2008. “There is little chance Atiq has till Amar Singh is in SP,” said a senior party leader.

“Atiq has met his nemesis. His place is in jail. I pray he never comes out and gets capital punishment for the murder of my husband Raju Pal,” legislator Puja Pal told The Indian Express from Bhadohi, where she was campaigning for the BSP candidate for the assembly by election.

Speculations about Atiq’s joining the BSP began after he publicly praised Mayawati before the trust vote in July 2008. Shortly after, cabinet minister Nasimuddin Siddiqui visited him in jail and later announced his willingness to join BSP unconditionally. This was of a great relief to Atiq, as the police’s drive against him went into “suspended animation”.