Lucknow: Former Uttar Pradesh ministers Swami Prasad Maurya and Dharam Singh Saini – who resigned this week from the Yogi Adityanath government and the ruling BJP less than 30 days before Assembly polls – today joined the Samajwadi Party in the presence of opposition leader Akhilesh Yadav.
Also joining the Samajwadi Party were MLAs Mukesh Verma, Vinay Shakya and Bhagwati Sagar.
Swami Prasad Maurya, an influential OBC leader earlier with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, quit on Tuesday.
Mr Maurya’s resignation opened the floodgates, with 10 MLAs, including two ministers, walking out of the BJP and the government in 72 hours. All of them have claimed the interests of OBC, or other backward classes, have been neglected by the Yogi Adityanath administration.
Bhagwati Sagar, Brijesh Prajapati, and Raushan Lal Verma were the MLAs who walked out with him.
The following day Dara Singh Chauhan, another key OBC leader and also a minister, quit, as did MLA Awtar Singh Bhadana, who is believed to be headed to the Rashtriya Lok Dal.
Dharam Singh Saini quit yesterday – just 24 hours after rubbishing reports he would do so. MLAs Vinay Shakya, Mukesh Verma and Bala Avasthi quit yesterday too, as did Chaudhary Amar Singh of the Apna Dal, which is allied with the ruling BJP.
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