Congress received yet another shot in the arm when Bahujan Samaj Party’s former Member of Parliament from Sitapur, Kaiser Jahan, and her husband Jasmir Ansari, a two-time-MLA from Laharpur, joined the grand old party along with their supporters on Monday.
The couple joined the Congress here in the presence of party’s state president Raj Babbar.
UPCC spokesperson Brijendra Kumar Singh said here on Monday that Jahan and Ansari expressed their faith in the leadership of party president Rahul Gandhi and the policies of the Congress.
Welcoming them into the party fold, Babbar said the Congress would form the government at the Centre after winning the coming Lok Sabha polls.
“A Congress government at the Centre will ensure the rights of the youth, farmers, labourers and traders, and pave the way for establishing an atmosphere in which all could feel safe and secure,” he added.
Jahan and Ansari had earlier met Congress general secretary and in-charge of east UP, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in Delhi and joined the Congress on Monday after quitting the BSP, Singh said.
Retired IPS officer Aftab Ahmed Khan and Chamber of Commerce vice-chairman Surendra Kumar also joined the party, he said.
Savitribai Phule, the MP from Bahraich reserved constituency in eastern UP who had resigned from the BJP in December last year, had joined the Congress in the presence of party president Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretaries in-charge of east and west Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Jyotiraditya Scindia, in New Delhi on Saturday.
Besides Phule, former MP from Fatehpur and Samajwadi Party leader Rakesh Sachan has also joined the Congress. The Congress is now looking towards smaller parties and individual leaders of prominence in western and eastern UP to strengthen its hold on the masses.