A Samajwadi Party lawmaker of the Uttar Pradesh legislative council quit on Friday and became the fourth opposition member from the upper house to join the ruling BJP within a fortnight.
Sarojini Agarwal is the third SP MLC to quit the legislative council since July 29 when two others resigned citing differences with the party leadership.
A Bahujan Samaj Patry (BSP) member also quit the same day, when BJP president Amit Shah was in Lucknow for a party programme.
All three joined the BJP within a couple of days.
Sarojini Agarwal, whose tenure was due to end in 2022, said decided to quit as Mulayam Singh Yadav, the founder of SP was no longer in the organisation, hinting she was unhappy with former chief minister minister Akhilesh Yadav, who is leading the party. She also hinted at joining the BJP, which stormed to power this year.
Agarwal’s resignation created one more vacancy needed for chief minister Yogi Adityanath and four of his ministers to become members of either houses of UP’s bicameral legislature.
Yogi and his four ministers have less than two months for this but they can become MLCs without contesting elections.
{{/usCountry}}Yogi and his four ministers have less than two months for this but they can become MLCs without contesting elections.
{{/usCountry}}Previous chief ministers Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati had opted for this route to enter the upper house.
There are four vacancies in the upper house, the Vidhan Parishad.
Besides Adityanath, the other ministers inlcude deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma and two ministers, Swatantra Dev Singh and Mohsin Raza.
Adityanath is an MP from Gorakhpur.