Ahead of the much-awaited Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) faced a big blow as three of their leaders joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday (January 12, 2022).
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Congress MLA Naresh Saini, Samajwadi Party MLA Hariom Yadav and former SP MLA Dharmpal Yadav joined BJP at its party headquarters in New Delhi.
The three leaders were welcomed in the presence of Uttar Pradesh BJP President Swatantra Dev Singh and deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma.
This, notably, comes a day after OBC leader Swami Prasad Maurya resigned from the Yogi cabinet and three other MLAs announced that they are quitting the party.
While Maurya has said that he will join the Samajwadi Party on January 14, Tindwari MLA Brajesh Prajapati, Tilhar’s Roshan Lal Varma and Bilhaur’s Bhagwati Sagar announced that they are leaving the BJP in Maurya’s support.
Elections for the 403-member Uttar Pradesh assembly will be held in seven phases. The polling will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, and March 3 and 7.
The counting of votes will take place on March 10.
Earlier in the 2017 Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party had bagged 312 seats while the SP had won 47, Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) 19 and Congress could manage to win only seven seats. The rest of the seats were bagged by other candidates.
