Former Uttar Pradesh ministers Swami Prasad Maurya and Dharam Singh Saini - who resigned this week from the Yogi Adityanath government and the ruling BJP just weeks before Assembly polls - today joined the Samajwadi Party in the presence of opposition leader Akhilesh Yadav.
Five BJP MLAs and Apna Dal (Sonelal) legislator Amar Singh Chaudhary also joined the SP in the presence of Akhilesh Yadav.
The five BJP MLAs who joined the SP are Bhagwati Sagar (Bilhaur in Kanpur), Roshanlal Verma (Tilhar in Shahjahanpur), Vinay Shakya (Bidhuna in Auraiya), Brijesh Prajapati (Tindwari in Bahraich) and Mukesh Verma (Shikohabad in Firozabad). Chaudhary is MLA from Shohratgarh.
They were given the SP membership at its office here.
The resignation of state Labour Minister Maurya had come as a jolt to the ruling BJP in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.
The spate of resignations began with Swami Prasad Maurya quitting the cabinet. Maurya, a prominent leader from the OBC community, had joined the BJP from BSP.
Dara Singh Chauhan had resigned as minister on Wednesday.
Yadav has welcomed both Chauhan and Saini to SP.
Samajwadi Party has stitched a coalition of smaller parties for the assembly polls and has emerged as the main rival of the ruling BJP in the state.
Earlier BJP MLAs Vinay Shakya, Avtar Singh Bhadana, Roshan Lal Verma, Brijesh Prajapati and Bhagwati Sagar resigned from the party.
Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7. The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3 and 7.
