Most BJP turncoats who jumped ship to SP trailing in Uttar Pradesh

Many BJP leaders who jumped ship to Samajwadi Party ahead of polls are either trailing or have already lost, Election Commission data shows.

Swami Prasad Maurya was trailing BJP’s Surendra Kumar Kushwaha in the Fazilnagar seat (file photo)

Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, BJP MLAs and state cabinet ministers who jumped ship to join the Samajwadi Party (SP) made headlines. The jury was out on if the exits will dent the BJP’s image and hurt the party’s prospects in the polls.

As the BJP is headed for a landslide victory in the state, data shows that most of the turncoats were either trailing or were destined for a defeat.

With over 29,000 votes, Swami Prasad Maurya was trailing BJP’s Surendra Kumar Kushwaha in the Fazilnagar seat. Kushwaha was leading by a margin of over 25,000 votes, according to the data on the Election Commission website at 4 pm.

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A prominent non-Yadav OBC face of Uttar Pradesh politics, Maurya quit the Cabinet ahead of the polls.

While Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav was quick to post a photograph with Maurya on Twitter soon after the veteran leader joined his party, it was a big leap for someone who had spent his career taking on the SP — for two decades as a member of the BSP and the last five years in the BJP, as a Cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath-led government.

Incumbent MLA Roshan Lal Verma, who had also quit BJP and joined SP, was trailing by over 6,000 votes in the Tilhar constituency. Brajesh Kumar Prajapti and Bhagwati Prasad, two other legislators who had switched over to SP from the saffron camp, were trailing in Tindwari and Ghatampur respectively.

Dharam Singh Saini, the incumbent Minister for Ayush who had resigned and joined hands with Akhilesh, was locked in a neck-and-neck contest with BJP’s Mukesh Choudhury, trailing by just over 300 votes.

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However, Dara Singh Chauhan, who too joined the SP, seems to be in contention to buck the trend. With 58,039 votes, Chauhan is leading, maintaining a slender margin of over 4,000 votes ahead of BJP’s Vijay Kumar Rajbhar.

Chauhan, a prominent OBC leader, had resigned from the Cabinet a day after Maurya chose to quit. Akhilesh Yadav had called Chauhan a “soldier of social justice” and welcomed him into his party fold. “Sabko samman, sabko sthan (Respect for everyone, place for everyone),” Akhilesh had stated while tweeting the photograph of Chauhan meeting him.