Weeks ahead of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Assembly polls, Pramod Gupta, former Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA and party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav's brother-in-law, on Thursday, 20 January, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The news comes within 24 hours of Aparna Yadav, the daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav, joining the ruling party on Wednesday.
Reacting to the back-to-back departures, during a press conference in Lucknow, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said,
"The BJP should be happy, they keep on accusing us of promoting familism within the party (parivavaad), at least they are ending the parivarvaad in our family. I am thankful to them for that."Akhilesh Yadav, as per NDTV
After his exit from the SP, Gupta addressed the reporters and said that his former party has been overtaken by goons, and indicated that he liked the BJP's policies.
"The reason I joined the BJP is that I like their policies. Akhilesh Ji hates Samajwadis in SP. One by one, he cornered everyone and has only flatterers around in the party... No one has ever won with a margin of over 18,000 votes from Bidhuna seat except me," news agency ANI quoted the former SP MLA as saying.
Meanwhile, Priyanka Maurya, who was the face of Congress's 'Ladki Hun, Lad Sakti Hun' campaign, also joined the BJP on Thursday.
The Assembly elections for 403 seats in the state will begin with the first phase of voting on 10 February and will end with the seventh and last phase of polling on 7 March. The counting of votes will be held on 10 March.
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