Akhilesh Yadav and Samjwadi Party seem to have the upper hand in the much awaited Uttar Pradesh polls, as the BJP has suffered serious jolts with back-to-back defections of 10 of its MLAs, including three state Cabinet ministers.
Here’s a list of the political leaders who defected from various parties to join the SP ahead of the Assembly elections:
Swami Prasad Maurya
A five-time MLA, Swami Prasad Maurya (68) had joined the BJP before the 2017 UP Assembly polls. He won the last three elections from Padrauna in UP’s Kushinagar district on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket. He was the minister of labour, employment & coordination in the UP Cabinet.
Dharam Singh Saini
Another minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, Dharam Singh Saini (60) is a four-time MLA from Nakud in UP’s Saharanpur district. Saini, too, was with the BSP before joining the BJP in 2016. He was the minister of state (independent charge) in the Department of Ayush, and the Food Safety and Drug Administration department in the UP Cabinet.
Vinay Shakya
A first-time BJP MLA from Bidhuna assembly constituency in UP’s Auraiya district, Vinay Shakya (58) followed Maurya into the Samajwadi Party. After he submitted his resignation letter to BJP chief JP Nadda, Shakya’s daughter posted a video on social media claiming that her father had been “kidnapped”. The legislator later told reporters that his daughter’s claim was untrue.
Roshanlal Verma
Roshanlal Verma (58) is a three-time BJP MLA from Tilhar in UP’s Shahjahanpur district. In the 2017 Assembly polls, Verma had defeated former Congress leader Jitin Prasada, who is now with the BJP.
Asked why he left the BJP, Roshanlal Verma told reporters, “The decision was not taken in a single day since I had joined the BJP to serve the poor but the party has neglected farmers, Dalits and those from backward classes.”
Mukesh Verma
Mukesh Verma (52) is a first-time MLA who was elected to the UP Legislative Assembly in 2017 from the Shikohabad assembly constituency in Firozabad district on a BJP ticket. A medical practitioner, Verma hails from the Nishad community.
Brijesh Prajapati
Seen as a close confidante of Swami Prasad Maurya, Brijesh Kumar Prajapati (36) is the BJP MLA from Tindwari assembly constituency in UP’s Banda. He resigned from the primary membership of the BJP on Tuesday.
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Apart from them, the other leaders who have joined the SP from other parties are:
Siddharth Nagar MLA from Apna Dal Chaudhary Amar Singh, former MLA from Rampur Ali Yusuf, former minister from Sitapur Ram Bharati, former MLA from Shahajahanpur Neeraj Maurya, former MLA from Moradabad Balram Saini, former MLA from Mirzapur Rajendra Prasad Singh Patel, former state minister Vidrohi Dhanpat Maurya, former minister Dhruvram Chaudhary, former minister Ayodhya Prasad Pal, Padam Singh, Bansi Singh Pahaliya, Amar Nath Singh Maurya, Ramavatar Saini, RK Maurya, Damodar Maurya, Balram Maurya, Devesh Shakya, Mahendra Maurya, Rajnikant Maurya, Ram Lakhan Chaurasia, Devesh Srivastava, Chandra Pal Singh Saini, and Harpal Singh.