The spat began after Singh, an SP leader, said Masood shouldn't be taken too seriously and that there had been no discussion of any alliance involving him specifically, adding that such decisions rested solely with the party's top leadership. Speaking in Saharanpur, Masood responded sharply, arguing that the SP was in no position to lecture Congress on alliance politics given how much it had benefited from one. He pointed to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, arguing the SP's strong showing of 37 seats came directly from its partnership with Congress, contrasting it with the party's more modest tally of under 120 seats in the 2022 assembly polls without that alliance.

Masood didn't stop at electoral arithmetic. He went further, alleging that the Samajwadi Party has a pattern of being unable to tolerate a Muslim leader who speaks up, and suggested such a leader currently exists within Congress instead — a clear, if indirect, reference to himself.

The exchange lands at a sensitive moment for the INDIA bloc. Congress and the SP fought the 2024 Lok Sabha elections together, with the alliance performing strongly across Uttar Pradesh — the SP emerged as the state's largest party and Congress picked up six seats. The two are widely expected to contest the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections together as well, though neither party has made a formal announcement confirming the alliance will continue.

Masood's remarks also follow a separate recent debate within opposition ranks over whether AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi should be brought into a broader INDIA bloc coalition for the UP elections — a question that has already exposed some daylight between Congress and SP leadership, with Masood previously arguing that only Rahul Gandhi's leadership offers a real path to defeating the BJP, while SP's Ram Gopal Yadav has taken a more open-ended position, saying any party willing to help beat the BJP is welcome.

Neither Udaiveer Singh nor the Samajwadi Party's central leadership had issued a further response to Masood's comments at the time of publishing. With both parties still expected to contest the 2027 polls as allies, how this particular exchange is smoothed over — or isn't — may offer an early signal of how steady that partnership actually is heading into campaign season.