New Delhi: BJP turncoats, including former ministers of the Yogi Adityanath cabinet and ex-MLAs who jumped ship to the Samajwadi Party (SP) just before Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, failed to make a mark and influence votes.
Of around a dozen BJP MLAs including three ex-ministers, five, including two ministers, have lost, while one is trailing. Only two MLAs are leading, according to the Election Commission of India (ECI) trends at 9 pm.
Other Backward Classes (OBC) leader Swami Prasad Maurya — who served as minister of labour, employment and coordination in the Yogi Adityanath government, and jumped ship to SP at the eleventh hour — lost in Fazilnagar seat against BJP’s candidate Surendra Kumar Kushwaha by over 45,000 votes.
समस्त विजयी प्रत्याशियों को बधाई।
जनादेश का सम्मान करता हूँ।
चुनाव हारा हूँ, हिम्मत नहीं।
संघर्ष का अभियान जारी रहेगा।
— Swami Prasad Maurya (@SwamiPMaurya) March 10, 2022
Maurya had also held key ministerial positions as a leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) under ex-CM Mayawati. He served as Leader of Opposition in the state assembly from 2012 to 2016.
Another former minister of the Adityanath cabinet, Dharam Singh Saini, lost the Nakur seat to BJP’s Mukesh Choudhary by just 315 votes.
Former BJP MLA Madhuri Verma lost in Nanpara with 12,184 votes. Ram Niwas Verma from Apna Dal (Sonelal), a BJP ally, won the seat.
Ahead of the state assembly elections, the BJP witnessed a series of resignations from OBC leaders with as many as 10 MLAs, including three ministers, leaving the party. The move was expected to improve the SP’s standing among non-Yadav OBCs.
Among the MLAs who jumped ship, Roshan Lal Verma lost from Tilhar while Brijesh Kumar Prajapati, who too had left the BJP and joined SP, also lost from Tindwari.
Digvijay Narayan is trailing from Khalilabad with 63,250 votes against BJP’s Ankur Tiwari, who is leading with 76,060 votes.
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Turncoats who are leading
Only two BJP turncoats are leading — former minister Dara Singh Chauhan with 1,08,430 votes from Ghosi, while BJP’s Vijay Kumar Rajbhar is trailing with 86,214 votes.
Former BJP MLA Mukesh Verma, who had joined SP, is leading from Shikohabad by over 9,000 votes.
Badri Narayan, political commentator and director of the GB Pant Social Science Institute in Prayagraj, had earlier told ThePrint that the BJP could suffer a loss in terms of perception, but on the ground the loss may not be significant — because the BJP also has tall leaders and has the Apna Dal as its ally.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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