The Bharatiya Janata Party received a shot in the arm when two senior leaders of the Bahujan Samaj Party joined the ruling party in the presence of its state unit chief Swatantra Dev Singh and minister Brajesh Pathak in Lucknow on Thursday.
The two BSP leaders, who switched sides are former UP minister Vinod Singh and ex-MLA, T Ram.
Welcoming the leaders, the BJP state chief said they would strengthen the party in the state as both were grassroots leaders and enjoyed mass support.
The party hoppers were earlier sacked by the BSP this year.
Vinod Singh, who was elected from Lambhua Assembly constituency in Sultanpur district in 2007 Assembly polls, was tourism minister in the Mayawati government.
In 2017, he had contested the polls on BSP ticket but had lost. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Singh had supported BJP candidate Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur and opposed the joint Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party candidate.
Similarly, a former chief engineer of PWD during BSP regime and a Dalit leader, T Ram was elected from to Assembly from Ajagara constituency in Varanasi in 2012 elections but lost in the 2017 polls as a BSP candidate.
Both the leaders said that they would serve the BJP with full dedication.
