Days after several high profile 'Brahmin' leaders, including an MLA each from the BJP and BSP from east Uttar Pradesh joined Samajwadi Party (SP), some more Brahmin leaders joined the SP in Lucknow on Monday.
BSP Lok Sabha member Ritesh Pandey's father and ex-MP Rakesh Pandey joined the Samajwadi Party in the presence of party chief Akhilesh Yadav. Another former MLA Brijesh Mishra, a Brahmin leader from Pratapgarh, joined the SP along with his supporters.
BJP legislator from Bahraich, Madhuri Verma hailing from the ‘Kurmi’ community, also joined the SP giving a huge jolt to the ruling party ahead of the assembly polls.
Rakesh Pandey, who had represented the Ambedkar Nagar Lok Sabha seat in 2014, was considered an important 'Brahmin' leader from the eastern region of UP. In 2019, his son replaced him as a BSP nominee after the former expressed his inability to contest the general elections. Pandey's departure is being perceived as a huge setback to the BSP, which had been trying desperately to woo the Brahmin community.
It came as a shot in the arm for the SP, which had opened up its doors for Brahmin leaders in a bid to expand its support base among the community.
Barely a few days ago, Brahmin leader and a six-term MLA from Chillupar seat in Gorakhpur, Hari Shankar Tewari and his two sons, Bhism Shanker and Vinay Shanker joined the SP. While the former was a BSP MP his brother was a former MLA.
Besides, BJP MLA from Khalilabad assembly seat, again in Gorakhpur division, Digvijay Narayan Chaube, had also joined the SP along with several other prominent Brahmin faces from the eastern region of the state.
The influx of so many senior Brahmin leaders into the SP has certainly triggered unease within the saffron fold, which had launched frantic efforts to 'douse' the perceived anger among the electorally influential community and woo them back into its fold. The BJP has formed a 16-member committee headed by party's Rajya Sabha member Shiv Pratap Shukla to reach out to the community and apprise them about the various measures initiated by the Centre and Uttar Pradesh government for their welfare.