LUCKNOW: In yet another blow to Samajwadi Pary, Shiv Kumar Beria, who was a minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government, joined BJP on Monday.
Considered close to Akhilesh’s uncle Shivpal Yadav, Beria has been a five-time MLA. In 2012, he won from Rasulabad reserved seat (Kanpur rural). In 2017, however, he was denied a ticket by Akhilesh, who took complete control of the party after a rift in the Yadav family surfaced just before the elections.
He later joined PSP (L) after Shivpal formed it in after 2017 polls. However, when Shivpal joined hands with Akhilesh recently, Beria was not rehabilitated.
Joining BJP, Beria termed SP as a party which “operates from bungalows”.
“When I joined SP, Lohia used to be the leader. Then politics came from the streets. Today, politics is being done from bungalows,” he said.
He praised Shivpal calling him a “good person”. “We do not know what compelled him to join hands with SP,” he said.
Beria attacked rebel UP ministers Swami Prasad Maurya and Dara Singh Chauhan who switched to SP recently, calling them “weathercock” (opportunists).
Meanwhile, SP MLC Ramesh Mishra too switched over to the BJP. His tenure in the legislative council was to end on March 7.
Likewise, BJP’s Dhaurahra MLA Bala Prasad Awasthi, who defected to SP a few days ago, came back to the saffron fold.
