Former Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Dara Singh Chauhan on Monday rejoined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the State party headquarters here, two days after he resigned from the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.
After joining the BJP, Mr. Chauhan praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and added that the saffron party will win all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in U.P.
“In the 2024 parliamentary elections, Narendra Modi ji will again become the Prime Minister. Be it Purvanchal (eastern U.P.) or other parts, the wind is blowing in favour of the BJP; the Opposition will fail to win any seat here [U.P.]. No power can stop Modi ji from becoming the PM, third time in a row,” said Mr. Chauhan.
Mr. Chauhan, who belongs to the Noniya caste [Other Backward Classes], is a former State Minister and parliamentarian. His joining is seen as an attempt by the BJP to reach out to the caste group which has a presence in around seven Lok Sabha seats in eastern U.P. including Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Ghosi, Ballia, Azamgarh, and Mau. He represented the Ghosi Assembly segment in Mau in the Assembly and is likely to become a Minister during the upcoming Cabinet expansion.
The BJP leaders welcomed Mr. Chauhan into the party and said his experience would help the BJP sweep the 2024 polls. “I welcome Dara Singh ji into the party. His homecoming will give strength to the BJP in eastern U.P.,” said U.P. BJP president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary. The Deputy CMs of the State, Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, were also present during the joining programme.
Mr. Chauhan was earlier with the BJP, holding the post of the Cabinet Minister for Forests, Environment and Animal Husbandry from 2017 to 2022 but resigned in January, 2022, before the Assembly polls alleging discrimination by the BJP government against the backward classes, Dalits and youths. He joined the SP and got elected as an MLA in the 2022 elections.
