Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Khalilabad constituency in Sant Kabir Nagar, Digvijay Narayan Chaubey, is likely to join Samajwadi Party.
He is the second BJP MLA to join the SP. Earlier Rakesh Rathor , BJP MLA from Sitapur, had joined the SP.
Apart from Chaubey, another prominent Brahmin leader from Purvanchal, former cabinet minister Hari Shankar Tiwari along with his son and BSP MLA Vinay Tiwari are also expected to switch over to SP. Tiwari is an MLA from Chillupar assembly constituency in Gorakhpur.
Meanwhile, Bhishma Shankar Tiwari, former MP from Sant Kabir Nagar and son of Hari Shankar Tewari, is also expected to join SP on Sunday. The switch over of Brahmin leaders to SP is seen as a major boost to the Samajwadi Party in eastern UP.
Earlier this year, jailed mafia Mukhtar Ansari’s brother, Sigbatullah Ansari, had switched over to SP from the Bahujan Samaj Party. The Ansari family is said to have a good hold in Mau and its adjoining districts.
The Samajwadi Party has been forging alliances with smaller and regional parties for the 2022 UP elections, instead of going with bigger parties. The SP had forged an alliance with Congress in 2017 for UP assembly polls and with BSP for 2019 Lok Sabha elections. However none of them worked out as per expectations of the party.
SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said, “Uttar Pradesh now wants change and SP will form the government with smaller parties in 2022 in the state."
On Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s jibe on taking credit for development projects, Akhilesh Yadav said, “The scissors came from Lucknow while the ribbon came from Delhi. The BJP cannot deny that most of the remaining work on the Saryu canal project was done during the Samajwadi Party government from 2012 to 2017. The SP government gave land for Gorakhpur AIIMS. The BJP people even filed a public interest litigation (PIL) against it. The land for AIIMS was given by the Samajwadi Party government. The BJP people don’t know how to work, all they know is how to cut ribbons."