Turncoats spice up poll contest in Uttar Pradesh

Switching sides has always been a part of the election process, and this year is no exception, with almost all parties in Uttar Pradesh, from the major ones like the BJP and Congress to smaller outfits like Apna Dal (Sonelal), seeing some legislators leave and others join. The BJP has reaped the most benefits from the flight of legislators, followed by the Samajwadi Party, while the BSP and the Congress have suffered the most losses.

Rakesh Tripathi, spokesperson for the UP BJP, stated that approximately 15 legislators from various parties have recently embraced the lotus.

Subhash Pasi (Saidpur, Ghazipur district) and Hari Om Yadav (Sirsaganj, Firozabad district) have both joined the BJP. Hariom Yadav, a distant relative of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, recently left the SP.

Narendra Singh Bhati, Shatrudra Prakash, Rama Niranjan, Pappu Singh, CP Chandra, Ghanshyam Lodhi, and Shailendra Pratap Singh are the SP Legislative Council members who have joined the BJP.

The SP is also a popular hangout for MLAs from other parties.

Haidar Ali Khan, who was declared the Congress candidate for Swar in Rampur but later joined the Apna Dal (Sonelal), Supriya Aron of Bareilly Cantt (from Congress to SP), Manish Jaiswal of Padrauna in Kushinagar (from Congress to BJP), Savita Pandey of Tarabganj in Gonda (from Congress to BJP), and Rachna Kori of Jagdishpur in Amethi (the SP candidate who joined the BJP after filing her nomination papers).

When it comes to the party goers, “There are many reasons,” Sanjay Kumar, Professor and Co-Director of Lokniti, a Research Programme at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, told PTI. First and foremost, if a leader begins to feel suffocated in the party and believes he has no political future in that party, he should leave.

Polling will be held in seven phases in Uttar Pradesh and the results will be declared on March 10.

Updated by Deveshi Gupta