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Last-minute party switch bring few rewards for turncoats in UP elections
Political leaders who switched sides in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh elections did not fare well in the poll battle, showed Thursday’s results
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Political leaders who switched sides in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh elections did not fare well in the poll battle, showed Thursday’s results.
For instance, former UP minister and prominent OBC leader Swami Prasad Maurya, who swapped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the Samajwadi Party (SP) just ahead of the elections, lost the Fazilnagar seat by over 45,000 votes to his former party, which was represented by Surendra Kumar Kushwaha.
Dharam Singh Saini, another minister in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet who shifted from the BJP to the SP with Maurya lost the Nakur seat to his former party’s Mukesh Choudhary, albeit by a slim margin of 315 votes, as of 11.30pm on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Hariom Yadav, who moved in the opposite direction, shifting to the BJP, lost the Sirsaganj seat to the SP candidate. Similarly, Vinay Shankar Tiwari who moved to the SP from the BSP lost the Chillupar seat.
Avtar Singh Bhadana shifted from the BJP to the Rashtriya Lok Dal, losing the Jewar seat.
The BJP won the state with ease, grabbing 251 of the 403 assembly seats (the party was leading on five seats till 11.30pm), and 41.3% vote share, almost five percentage points higher than its vote share in 2017. The Samajwadi Party (SP) improved its 2017 performance, winning 103 seats to 47 then (the party was leading on eight seats till 11.30pm), and reaching the highest vote share it ever has in the state (32%), but still only managed the second spot.
BJP Ballia MLA Surendra Singh Beria, when he was denied ticket by the BJP, shifted to a new party in UP election scene Vikasheel Insan Party (VIP) and lost.
Shubhawati Shukla, who shifted from BJP to SP and contested polls against Yogi Adityanath on the Gorakhpur Sadar seat lost to Yogi Adityanath. This was her first assembly contest.
Tindrwari MLA of BJP, Brajesh Prajapati who was the SP candidate on the same seat lost.
Some turncoats did, however, buck this trend.
Dara Singh Chauhan, a former minister in the Adityanath cabinet won the Ghosi seat, securing over 42% of the vote.
Aditi Singh who moved from Congress to BJP won her Rae Bareli seat as the BJP candidate. Lalji Verma who moved from the BSP to SP won the Katehari seat in Ambedkar Nagar. Rakesh Pandey an ex-MP who changed camps--from BSP to SP--won the contest on the Jalalpur seat.
