Dara Singh Chauhan joins SP, third minister to ditch BJP for SP ahead of Polls
Ten News Network
Lucknow, January 16: Former UP minister in the Yogi Adityanath Cabinet, Dara Singh Chauhan, on Sunday joined Samajwadi party in Lucknow in the presence of SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Dara Singh Chauhan had earlier this week resigned from the BJP & from his post in the state cabinet.
He is an influential OBC leader who has also served as a Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MP.
Chauhan was the Environment and Forests Minister in Chief Minister Adityanath’s cabinet till he quit on Wednesday.
He is the third minister after Swami Prasad Maurya and Dharam Singh Saini to leave the BJP and join the party led by Akhilesh Yadav in the last one week, ahead of Assembly polls which are due next month.
SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “I welcome Dara Singh Chauhan and his supporters who have come along in large numbers.”
Chauhan said, ”When the BJP government was formed in 2017, the slogan was given, ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’, but development was only for a few people. The rest were left to fend for themselves. Today there is a conspiracy to make slaves by giving ration.”
He added, “People say what we kept doing for five years. We kept waiting, the backward society is patient, but when we saw that the interest of the backward society is being completely ignored, we decided that we will come with the SP.”
Along with the former Ministers, the sitting MLAs Bhagwati Sagar, Vinay Shakya, Roshan Lal Verma, Mukesh Verma and Brajesh Kumar Prajapati have also joined SP.
Swami Prasad Maurya was inducted on Saturday, with another ex-minister, Dharam Singh Saini and six MLAs, including another from the Apna Dal.