The slew of resignations in the Uttar Pradesh BJP spilled over to Thursday with Shikohahabad MLA and Backward Caste leader Mukesh Verma resigning from the party’s primary membership weeks before Assembly elections.
So far 13 MLAs, including two ministers, have resigned from the BJP in the run-up to the February-March polls, majority of them in the last 72 hours.
Speaking to reporters, Verma said he was following influential OBC leader and minister Swami Prasad Maurya out of the ruling party. “Swami Prasad Maurya is our leader. We will support whatever decision he takes. Many other leaders will join us in the coming days,” Verma said.
Mukesh Verma represents Shikohahabad constituency which comes under Firozabad district in western Uttar Pradesh that goes to polls in the initial phases of the seven-phase polling in the state.
In his letter addressed to the state BJP president, Varma alleged that the Yogi Adityanath government, in the past five years, has “failed to address” the problems of weaker sections, youths, farmers, Dalits and OBCs. He said that small traders and businessmen had suffered in the regime. Verma also sent a copy of the letter to the party’s national president JP Nadda.
So far, Mukesh Verma, Avtar Singh Bhadana, Brijesh Kumar Prajapati, Roshan Lal Varma, Bhagwati Sagar, Vinay Shakya and Bala Prasad Awasthi have resigned after ministers Swami Prasad Maurya and Dara Singh Chauhan walked out of the BJP. Four MLAs — Madhuri Verma, Digvijay Nath Chaubey, Radha Krishna Sharma and Rakesh Rathor – had quit the party earlier.
Barring Bhadana, who has joined the RLD, other legislators are likely to join the Samajwadi Party in the coming days.
Amid the spate of walkouts from the party, the BJP on Wednesday also inducted two names from the Congress and the Samajwadi Party. Congress MLA Narensh Saini and Samajwadi Party MLA Hari Om Yadav, who joined the BJP, both hail from Backward Castes.
The BJP’s Central Election Committee is meeting on Thursday to finalise the candidates list for seats that will go to polls in the initial phases of Uttar Pradesh elections 2022, starting February 10.
BJP president JP Nadda and Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari, all of whom have contracted covid-19, joined the meeting via video conferencing, while Home Minister Amit Shah and several other leaders besides those from Uttar Pradesh, including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, met physically. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also scheduled to join the meeting virtually.
As many as 58 and 55 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will vote on February 10 and February 14, respectively.
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