Dara Singh Chauhan, ex-minister in Yogi cabinet, joins Samajwadi Party

Dara Singh Chauhan, a former minister in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet and a BJP legislator from the Madhuban constituency, formally joined the Samajwadi Party in the presence of its national president Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow on Sunday.

He is the third minister after Swami Prasad Maurya and Dharam Singh Saini to leave the ruling camp for the Yadav-led party.

Another sitting MLA of BJP ally Apna Dal-S, RK Verma, also joined the Samajwadi Party during the day.

Maurya, Saini and five other legislators from the ruling dispensation had formally joined the Samajwadi Party on Friday.

All the leaders had resigned from the BJP in quick succession over the past few days. Uttar Pradesh is set to see a seven-phase Assembly election from next month.

Vowing to make Yadav the next chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Chauhan said, in 2017, the BJP took votes from people belonging to backward communities, but did not give anything in return. Hence, all those belonging to backward communities are trooping to the SP,” he said.

Yadav said, “I congratulate both of you for having joined the fight to defeat and oust the BJP. Let us fight in a manner that the BJP candidates’ poll deposits are forfeited.”

“People of the double-engine government (BJP at the Centre and state) are dismantling each other’s wheels,” he said in an apparent dig at issues between saffron camp leaders in Delhi and UP.

“There is a saying in English ‘strike the iron when it is hot’. So we decided to welcome these leaders into the party at the right time. The BJP does not understand English saying. If they did, they would go into a depression,” Yadav added.