As political machinations in Uttar Pradesh pick up pace ahead of Assembly polls next year, the BSP could be gearing up for bad news.
Nine MLAs of the BSP on Tuesday met Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow. Sources told THE WEEK they discussed the upcoming Assembly polls. The meeting has given rise to speculation the nine legislators could switch over to the Samajwadi Party, which has been projecting itself as the main opposition contender against the BJP. These MLAs are likely to meet the Assembly speaker later on Tuesday.
India TV reported the nine MLAs are Hakim Lal Bind (Handia constituency), Vandana Singh (Sagri), Ramveer Upadhyay (Sadabad), Anil Kumar Singh (Purwa), Aslam Raini (Bhinga), Aslam Ali (Dholana), Mujtaba Siddiqui (Pratappur), Hargovind Bhargava (Sidhauli) and Sushma Patel (Mungra Badshahpur).
It is believed these nine MLAs could help the Samajwadi Party to reach out to those BSP members, who have either been expelled from the party or become disgruntled with supremo Mayawati. Earlier this month, Mayawati expelled two key BSP leaders, Lalji Verma and Ram Achal Rajbhar. She accused them of indulging in anti-party activities in the recent panchayat polls. The BSP won only 19 seats in the 2017 Assembly polls, but the number of MLAs have whittled down significantly since then.
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Ironically, many of the MLAs who, reportedly, met Akhilesh on Tuesday were suspended from the BSP in October. The action against the legislators then was also prompted by them meeting Akhilesh.
(With inputs from Puja Awasthi)
