LUCKNOW: The three rebel MLCs – two from Samajwadi Party (SP) and one from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) – who resigned from the State Council on Saturday, joined the BJP in the presence of party's state chief Keshav Maurya here on Monday afternoon.
One of the two SP MLCs who resigned, Bukkal Nawab, after joining the BJP ranks, rued being marginalised in SP. "I was expecting that I will be heard in the party for quite some time but I was hugely mistaken," he maintained.
Bukkal Nawab had a long association with the SP. Deemed to be close to SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, Bukkal Nawab was the labour minister in Mulayam's cabinet.
When the other SP MLC Yashwant Singh confirmed that he was joining the saffron party, BSP rebel MLC Thakur Jaiveer Singh took the pretext that his parent party had changed its course of politics and digressed from the basic issues. "BSP has drifted away from people. So there was no issue remaining in it any longer," said Jaiveer Singh.
Yashawant Singh joined Samajwadi Party in 2004 after winning Assembly polls twice. Ex-PM late Chandra Shekhar Singh and former UP CM late Ram Naresh Yadav are considered to be his mentors in state politics. BSP's Jaiveer Singh, meanwhile, was once the BSP MLA from Baruali constituency of Aligarh.
However, winding up his three-day trip to UP which witnessed quite a few political rumblings, BJP national president Amit Shah rejected the rumours over the ex-state chief of Samajwadi Party Shivpal Yadav’s alleged inclination to join the BJP. He also ruled out the possibility of Deputy CM Kesahv Maurya joining Union cabinet.
"When the new state chief of the party will take over, Keshav will be able to devote full time to his ministerial responsibilities," said Shah while interacting with the media persons.
On the issue of Ram temple in Ayodhya, the BJP chief reiterated party's position saying that the government would abide by the court's decision over the issue. "It will be built either following the course of law or through mutual dialogue and settlement among stakeholders," he stated.
The BJP chief also rejected the charge of pulling down the Lalu-Nitish alliance in Bihar saying that the BJP had no role in breaking the 20-month-old tie-up.