Ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, three-time Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) member of legislative assembly (MLA) and two-time Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister, Vedram Bhati, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday in Greater Noida.
The veteran BSP leader said he was disgruntled by the “disdain” shown by his party and added that he is willing to work as a volunteer for the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The move by the 68-year-old Gujjar leader has come as a jolt to BSP.
Hailing from Girdharpur in Greater Noida, he was part in the BSP since 1991 when he joined active politics. In his 28-year-old tenure in politics, Bhati was an MLA three times between 2002 and 2017 and cabinet minister twice during Mayawati’s tenure as the UP chief minister. He was the MLA of Sikandrabad from 2002-07 and 2007-12 and the MLA of Jewar from 2012-17.
Bhati was welcomed by BJP state president Mahendra Nath Pandey at a small event in Greater Noida on Wednesday.