In a major setback to the Bhartiya Janta Party on Friday, its outgoing MP from Machhlishahr Ram Charitra Nishad shifted loyalties to Samajwadi Party after his name was dropped by the party for the Lok Sabha Polls.
BJP in a run-to to the national elections has replaced Nishad with V P Saroj for the Lok Sabha Seat seat of Macchhlishahr. BJP new pick Saroj had contested 2014 Lok Sabha Polls on BSP Ticket and had joined Bharatiya Janata Party on March 22, this year.
While Ram Charitra Nishad had in 2014 General elections won the seat with a huge margin by defeating BSP’s VP Saroj.
READ: Lok Sabha Polls 2019: Check out the full list of Candidates announced by Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh
Lucknow: Ram Charitra Nishad, BJP MP from Machhlishahr joins Samajwadi Party (SP) in presence of party chief, Akhilesh Yadav. pic.twitter.com/grAREYy3CT
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) April 19, 2019
BJP Outgoing MP Nishad joined Samajwadi Party in presence of SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav. However, Macchlisharhr has been given to BSP under the poll pact who has named T Ram from the seat. It is expected that the Samajwadi Party will accommodate Ram Charitra Nishad on some other seat of the seat.
Verma’s addition to the Samajwadi Party came days after BJP sitting MP from Allahabad now known as Prayagraj Shyama Charan Gupta shifted loyalties back to Samajwadi Party. Samajwadi Party has nominated Shyama Charan Gupta from Banda Parliamentary Seat. While BJP MP Anshul Verma from UP has also in a run-up to mega polls joined SP.
Samajwadi Party who has entered into an alliance with BSP and other small parties has so far declared candidates on 28 Lok Sabha Seats out of 37 seats allotted to it in alliance with BSP.
BSP-SP combine in the state is taking on BJP and Congress. BJP has taken Apna Dal(S), Nishad Party into its fold while Congress has also managed to ink poll tie-up with Mahan Dal, Apna Dal faction, Jan Adhikar Rally, others.
80 seats of the state will go to polls in all seven phases starting from April 11 till May 19. The 16 Lok Sabha Seats of including Gautam Budh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Kairana, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Bijnor, Aligarh, Mathura, Buldansharhr, among others have already voted on in first two phases of Voting. Phase-III of Voting is slated for April 23.
Counting of votes will take place on May 23, four days after the final round of Polling.
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