Ahead of UP polls, 6 rebel BSP MLAs, BJP lawmaker join SP

LUCKNOW: Six rebel BSP MLAs and one sitting legislator from BJP formally joined Samajwadi Party in Lucknow on Saturday. After inducting the seven MLAs into the party fold, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said BJP should now change its slogan from ‘Mera parivar BJP parivar’ to ‘mera parivar bhaagta parivar’.
The BSP MLAs who joined SP included Mujtaba Siddiqui, Hakim Lal Bind, Sushma Patel, Aslam Chaudhary, Hargovind Bhargava and Aslam Raini. All were suspended from BSP in October 2020 for anti-party activities after they came in contact with the ‘backroom boys’ of SP with plans to shift loyalties.
BJP MLA from Sitapur, Rajkesh Rathore, who has been vocal against his own government for quite some time on the issues of law and order and handling of pandemic, also joined SP. Later, Akhilesh questioned the claims of Union home minister Amit Shah that BJP has fulfilled 90% of the promises it had made in the Sankalp Patra (manifesto) ahead of the 2017 assembly polls. “On the very first page of the Sankalp Patra, BJP promised that farmers’ income will be doubled. Has it been doubled,” he asked.
He said BJP promised to strengthen the system of mandis to help farmers sell their produce easily but the government increased the rate of fertilisers, electricity and fuel.