There is no doubt that Imran Masdu is a strong leader and he has a good influence in Saharanpur and surrounding areas. But he has won the election only once, when he contested the 2007 assembly elections as an independent. After that, he lost the 2012 and 2017 assembly elections and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on a Congress party ticket. In between, he once went to the Samajwadi Party but then returned to the Congress. Now they are going to SP again, obviously they will contest the assembly elections as well. But it does not seem that his joining SP will be very beneficial for SP. On the contrary, they may be harmed.
His personality is a communal polarizer. He had given a statement to cut Narendra Modi into pieces. Although later he kept clarifying on this, but he did not talk to him. Had he been in Congress, a message would have been generated among Hindu voters that SP and Congress are fighting among themselves. This does not make the message of the Muslim vote working wholeheartedly to defeat the BJP or Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath. But now the message will be that Imran Masood has returned to SP after being in Congress for so many years, it means Muslims are uniting to defeat Modi-Yogi. This message will automatically polarize Hindu voters. It will not only harm the Congress but also the SP and the chances of the BJP trying to polarize it will increase.
