Founding member of the Samajwadi Party (SP) Chandra Prakash Rai and former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Sitapur, Rakesh Rathore joined the Congress in Lucknow on Thursday.
Congress leaders that included the party’s State unit chief Brijlal Khabri, were present.
Mr. Rai, who was accorded ministerial status during the SP government, alleged the SP had deviated from its path of socialism and today there was no socialism in the party. “I was attached to the ideology of socialism since childhood, but today in the Samajwadi Party, neither socialism nor socialist ideology is left,” said Mr. Rai.