In a big setback to Mayawati, one of her close confidants, Govind Bhati, left the Bahujan Samaj Party to join the Bharatiya Janata Party here on Friday afternoon.
Sources in the party confirmed that Bhati and some other senior leaders of the BSP were unhappy with the ticket distribution and were quitting the party one by one. Mayawati too removed some leaders after learning that they indulged in anti-party activities.
Govind Bhati, who was the mandal coordinator of BSP in Meerut, on Friday, quit his party and joined the BJP. Speculation of him switching loyalty was already made by some senior leaders of the party.
Bhati is counted as very close to Mayawati and also hails from Palla village next to the BSP chief’s village Badalpur.
It may be mentioned that the news of resentment within the party had earlier also come to the fore regarding ticket distribution at many places following which Mayawati had changed the coordinators of many districts. Chief zone incharge of Kanpur, Munkad Ali Kohtakar, was removed and the responsibility was given to Shamsuddin. Apart from this, Naushad Ali was sent as Moradabad divisional in-charge while Satpal Pepla, who was looking after the charge of Moradabad, was attached with the Meerut division along with Bhati.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak, on Friday, welcomed Bhati into the party fold. Bhati joined BJP in the presence of Pathak at party state headquarters here on Friday afternoon.
Besides Bhati, other prominent leaders who joined the BJP included national president of All India Brahmin Sabha and former assembly candidate of BSP from Baraut, Ankit Sharma (Meerut), former district president of Rashtriya Lok Dal in Agra, Kusum Chahar, former national secretary of Samajwadi Party Lohia Vahini, state president of Bari Samaj, Anoop Singh Bari (Ambedkar Nagar), district panchayat member Chandrabhan Singh (Ayodhya), district vice-president of Mulayam Singh Youth Brigade, Mukesh Raj Bhatnagar (Lucknow), vice-president of Lucknow Bar Association, Anuj Yadav (Lucknow), national executive member of Mulayam Singh Youth Brigade, Dheeraj Kumar Singh (Lucknow) along with a large number of their supporters.
On this occasion, state general secretary of the BJP, Sanjay Rai, state vice-president Santosh Singh, state media incharge Manish Dixit and many other senior leaders were present.
Welcoming those who took the membership of the party, Brajesh Pathak said that they should work to strengthen the BJP in their respective areas. He said that the public welfare works being done under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were being widely appreciated.
Pathak said that after the first phase of polling, the BJP was on the way to a big victory.
