Allahabad University students Union president Richa Singh, former minister Amarjeet Singh Jansevek, Kunjalka Sharma, daughter of eminent poet Gopal Das Neeraj and Congress leader from Azamgarh Paritosh Tripathi joined the ruling Samajwadi Party in presence of state party in-charge and PWD Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav here on Saturday.
Yadav while welcoming all the leaders in the party fold announced that Amarjeet Singh Jansevek, will contest from Bindki assembly seat of Fatehpur district and Kunjalka Sharma will contest from Agra (north) assembly seat in the 2017 assembly polls.
Both the leaders have left the BJP to join the SP. Addressing the press conference here, AU president Richa Singh said that she decided to join the party as it was the only political party in the state which can fight against the communal forces.
"There are two models at present working in the state among the students. First the BJP which is forcing the students to commit suicide and to stop raising their voices while the second in the Samajwadi party which is promoting the youths and women. I preferred the second one," she said.In her long address, Richa Singh lambasted the BJP and its effort to saffronise the educational system in the country. "Students have raised their voices in FFTI, JNU, AU, Hyderabad University and BHU against the blatant interference and discriminatory
policies of the NDA government. The AU president said the newly appointed state BJP president Keshav Prasad Maury is anti-women and a communal person.
`` A women leader of the BJP in Allahabad was dismissed from the party, the day Keshav Maurya was appointed as state president’’, said Richa Singh. Shivpal Yadav during his interaction with the media said that if Richa Singh wants to contest the elections then she would be accommodated accordingly.
Recently the state government had honoured Richa Singh with Rani laxmibai Award of Rs one lakh in cash. She had won the elections of the AU with the support of the SP after the nomination of the SP candidate was rejected by the returning officer.
Former Minister Amarjeet Singh Jansevek claimed that he has the specific information that the BJP wants prevent Mayawati from becoming the chief minister in 2017 and favours SP retain power." The prime concern of the BJP is 2019 lok Sabha elections hence they have made a weak state president and was not at all interested in 2017 UP polls," he claimed. Kunjalka Sharma is the councilor of BJP from Agra since 1995 and it was for the first time she has defected to other party.
Shivpal Yadav ruled out the possibility of the Bahujan Samaj Party coming to power in UP after the 2017 assembly polls. "There is no chance of the BSP as now the Supreme Court has already ordered a fresh probe against Mayawati in the Disproportionate Asset (DA) case.
"The BSP leaders were day dreaming about coming to power but it was certain that SP will retain the power with more strength as this time at least 300 MlAs of the party will win in the assembly polls next year."
"Mayawati has always ditched the people of the state by indulging in corruption and other malpractices and even had cheated the dalits," he alleged while claiming that during her regime, Mayawati had only benefited herself and noon else.
When asked about the basis of the optimism of the party to get 300 seats in 2017, Shivpal Yadav said that," the sole criterion of selecting the candidates was their winiability besides other political parties have already accepted their defeat due to the all round developmental works by the Akhilesh Yadav government."
Commenting on the developmental works, he said "BJP was only going for tall claims about cleaning of the Ganga but it was the SP government which is constructing pucca ghats at Varanasi, Ayodhya, Allahabad and other religious places." He said a record has been made by this government to complete a 300-kilometer long expressway in just two years' time.