|
With the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh round the corner, politics has heated up with reports of 11 MLAs suspended from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) deciding to float a new political outfit before the polls. All the suspended BSP MLAs have also decided to form a new party under the leadership of Lalji Verma, recently expelled by the party.
Meanwhile, nine MLAs suspended from BSP met the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow on Tuesday. Of the total 18 MLAs in the BSP, nine were suspended and two expelled. The BSP is on the verge of a major split and it is also speculated that very soon, all the rebel MLAs would join the SP and fight the upcoming assembly elections as SP candidates. The BSP also has no Muslim MLA now.
Shravasti MLA Aslam Raini, who was suspended from the BSP after rebelling against the party during the Rajya Sabha elections held in November 2020, told mediaperson here on Tuesday that all the 11 rebel MLAs of BSP would form a new political party and Lalji Verma would be the leader.
He said along with Lalji Verma, another expelled BSP leader Ram Achal Rajbhar is also with them. “We will make Lalji Verma the head of our party. Eleven MLAs are united now. Right now, we are short of one MLA, due to which a new party is not being formed immediately. If one more MLA comes, we will form the party,” Raini said. He added that the name of the party would be decided by Lalji Verma.
“We have no complaints with Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati, but we have serious issues with the behaviour of party’s national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra,” he added.
On his meeting with Akhilesh Yadav, said, “We can meet any leader. Earlier too, nine suspended MLAs had met Akhilesh Yadav.” There were reports that Yadav discussed the 2022 assembly elections with them.
Earlier in the morning, six MLAs reached the SP office and later, three more MLAs joined in. After the meeting, all of them left the office from the back gate of the SP office.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the SP and BSP had an alliance. The SP won five seats while BSP won 10. The alliance was called off soon after the elections.
Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav said that the entry of rebel MLAs would give a big boost to the SP. The rebel BSP MLAs who met Akhilesh included Aslam Raini, Aslam Ali, Mujtaba Siddiqui, Hakim Lal, Sushma Patel and Hargovind Bhargava.