UP: Expelled BSP MLA Jitendra Singh Babloo joins BJP

LUCKNOW: In a surprising development, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday inducted former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Jitendra Singh Babloo.
He is one of the prime accused in the case involving arson and setting the house of former UP Congress Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi — now a BJP MP — on fire.
Babloo joined the saffron outfit in the presence of UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh and other senior state leaders at the party state headquarters in Lucknow.
Soon after joining the BJP, he claimed that the charges framed against him in the arson case were false and ungrounded.
“I was not even present at the site,” he said while speaking to reporters.
Babloo added that he had been demanding a CB-CID inquiry into the case since the case was filed against him.
The incident had happened in July 2008.
Following derogatory remarks against the then chief minister Mayawati, a group of masked men had reportedly attacked the house of Joshi with iron rods and then set it on fire.

Babloo was subsequently expelled from the BSP by Mayawati.