A day after resigning from the Samajwadi Party and the Rajya Sabha, Neeraj Shekhar, son of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, on Tuesday joined the BJP in the presence of its general secretaries Bhupendra Yadav and Anil Jain.
According to sources, Neeraj may be fielded by the BJP from Uttar Pradesh for a RS seat. Neeraj had been contesting Lok Sabha polls from his father’s pocket borough Ballia and won twice in 2007 and 2009, but lost in 2014.
The SP then sent him to the Rajya Sabha. He was not fielded in the recent Lok Sabha polls.
Though Chandra Shekhar was not in the Samajwadi Party, SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav had never fielded any candidate against him from Ballia. After Chandra Shekhar’s death in 2007, Mulayam had fielded Neeraj from the seat on a Samajwadi Party ticket.